Terrifying Video Shows 5-Year-Old Fall From Big Bear Ski Lift

BIG BEAR, CA — A young girl's family spoke out this week about a terrifying fall caught on camera at a Southern California ski resort. The video, which has since gained viral attention around the world, shows the 5-year-old dangling from the lift before falling.

The fall happened over the weekend at Bear Mountain Resort in Big Bear, according to witnesses and family members.

The girl, identified by ABC7 News as Sara, was on the lift Saturday with her 7-year-old sister and a ski instructor, according to the news outlet. Her mother was on a chair in the lift ahead of her and listened in horror as she heard people screaming.

"I turned back and I saw Sara dangling from the chairlift and she was just there and she was dangling," she told the news station. "I couldn't do anything about it."

The mother, who was not identified, told reporters her daughter slid off an iced-over seat and that the instructor caught Sara by the hood on her jacket.

"He said that she had choked on her tongue and she was unconscious so he was unbuttoning her to do CPR," she told ABC7.

When the girl did fall, rescuers were waiting below with a tarp to catch her, footage from the scene showed.

Bear Mountain officials released a statement saying they are "looking into" the incident, adding that they'll "do everything we can to prevent something like this from happening again."

Original footage of the incident that was captured by an Instagram user has since been removed.

Read more about what happened to Sara on ABC7 here.

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