KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 20 — The Langkawi Development Authority (Lada) will brief the Chinese Embassy on the recent cable car incident as half the tourist affected were from China.

Local daily The Star reported that the embassy will be briefed on the recent glitch to prevent a backlash that can affect the tourism industry.

Lada has gone into damage control mode after 16 of the Langkawi SkyCab gondola lifts, with 88 passengers inside, were left suspended in mid-air for almost four hours on Sunday.

"It’s definitely something no tourist would want to experience. We will explain the glitch to prevent a backlash that could affect the tourism business.

"About 3,000 tourists use the cable car service every day, and about 5,000 during the festive season,” Lada chief executive officer Datuk Azizan Noordin told the English daily yesterday.

Azizan said the cable car were checked and serviced on a daily basis and are kept in tip-top condition, and that it was unfortunate for the incident to have taken place without a warning.

Meanwhile, Langkawi MP Datuk Nawawi Ahmad, told the daily that the post-mortem would look at implementing the latest technology to detect any faults.

He said though there is already an advanced computerised system in place, there could be newer versions that would be applicable to the system.

"The SkyCab is 15 years old. It’s the steepest cable car system in the world, at 45-degree angle, making it world’s steep, and this was the first time such a glitch happened.

"Safety is our number one priority,” he told the daily.

Due to a faulty bearing system, over 900 tourists were stranded at two stations on Gunung Machinchang from 6pm to 9.50pm on Sunday.

The stranded tourists as well as the stations’ staff were brought down safely by 11 pm by rescue workers.

The Langkawi SkyCab services had resumed operation at noon, yesterday, following maintenance works.