Passengers Rescued From Cable Cars In French Alps; 3 Women Arrested In French Terror Plot Investigation; Sunday Marks 15th Anniversary Of 9/11 Attacks
CURNOW: Well, this doesn't sound like fun, does it? Passengers who spent a night stuck in a cable car high up in the French Alps are now speaking out about their experience. 33 people including three children were finally brought to safety, Friday morning. They'd spent the night dangling high, high, above the ground after the cable cars came to a halt on Thursday. We're going to get more now from our Ben Wedeman, he joins us from Chamonix in France. Hi there Ben. Tell us about this ordeal.</s>BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, harrowing is the only way to describe it. But, you know, when you think about it they are very lucky that in this case nobody was hurt. But for 33 people, they spent 16 very long, cold and anxious hours up in those cable cars.</s>WEDEMAN: Visibly relieved to be back on the ground. It was supposed to be a beautiful day out at Western Europe's highest peak. But it turned into a nightmare. 33 people stuck in several cable cars overnight in the French Alps, suspended at over 12,000 feet. There were among 110 initially trapped after wires carrying the cars tangled in high winds. The experience left many shaken.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): You try to clear your mind as much as you can, but it's very difficult. Very difficult. I had to close my eyes during a good amount of time to try to think about something else.</s>WEDEMAN: Rescuers raced against the nightfall using the helicopters to evacuate as many as possible. When fog rolled in they used a rope to lower some riders to the ground.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They tried to take us with a helicopter but the fog came in so the two rescuers stayed with us. And then we did a belay after we decided there was no other way to get down.</s>WEDEMAN: Those stuck overnight had to use blankets, water and cereal bars and survival kits found in each cabin. As morning broke, the final 33 people were freed after first responders managed to restart the cars. Now heading back, relieved it's over and that no one was hurt.</s>WEDEMAN: And it really was a heroic effort by the French and Italian rescue teams. They were essentially lowered from these helicopters to the cable cars and then pulled one by one the people who they were able to rescue yesterday. Today, those cable cars were put back into action and simply rolled down the cables to the station. But now, the French authorities have launched an investigation into this incident, no doubt, to make sure it doesn't happen again. But I imagine for some of those 33 who were stuck overnight in those cable cars, they probably never want to step foot in one again. Robyn?</s>CURNOW: No. I know. I mean, it gives me the chills just watching these pictures. So on one hand, they were lowered down. They managed to get these cable cars working this morning. But the people who had initially been rescued, and as you said, an extraordinary rescue effort. Sometimes at 12,000 feet, literally individually pulling people out of these cars, that in itself is an extraordinary piece of drama.</s>WEDEMAN: Yes. And you have to keep in mind, of course it's a 12,000 feet, but the cable cars themselves were anywhere between 10 meter and 200 meters above solid earth. But still, you can imagine that especially if you have children in a situation like that, to say, to describe it as nerve-racking is an understatement. But fortunately when it all is said and done, nobody was hurt, but clearly fairly traumatized by the experience. Robyn?</s>CURNOW: Certainly a lot of questions to be asked on how and why this happened. Ben Wedeman, thanks so much. Well, French police have arrested three women said to be planning an imminent and violent attack. The arrest in connection with gas cylinders found in a car outside the Notre Dame Cathedral this week. Our Jim Bittermann has been following the story all week for us from Paris. And these new details deeply concerning about three suspected female terrorists. What do we know about them?</s>JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Quite unusual. There's three women, the one, the oldest one, 39 years old, the next one 23 years old and the last one 19 years old. And I just take them one by one. The 39 year old, mother of four, nothing unusual according to her neighbors, except that a year ago she did start addressing in a more Islamic way. She apparently is thought to be a person who just gave lodging to the other two. The other two are a different story. They're both known to police. The 23-year-old apparently had romantic ties to two other terrorists in France. According to reports here, she was planning on marrying a terrorist who killed the two police officers out in Magnanville in the month of June and then fell in with another terrorist. By the way, that one, the first one was killed. Fell in with another terrorist who is the guy who assassinated the priest during mass just a few weeks ago and he was also killed. And police now have picked up her current boyfriend and he is being questioned at this time. The 19 year old was the daughter of the owner of the car that was parked next to Notre Dame and apparently according to reports she tried twice to ignite the gas cylinders in that car but failed both times and left in frustration. Robyn?</s>CURNOW: And tell us what their plan was? Because I remember you reporting earlier on in the week that there wasn't really a detonator in the car. So was she trying to use the whole car and these gas cylinders -- with the gas cylinders inside as a bomb? What was her plan?</s>BITTERMANN: Apparently so. Apparently that was it. We also were speculating earlier that maybe this was some kind of a test. But I don't think that's what police think now. We're going to know more by the way in about two hours because the Paris prosecutor is going to talk about this. But in any case, they -- it looked like she tried to set off those gas cylinders in the car and wasn't able to do it, kind of an amateurish approach. And in fact one of the things that the president, President Hollande indicated in his speech to or his remarks to journalists this morning from Athens was that he believes that they were self-radicalized on the internet. In fact, he is going to raise this issue about self- radicalization through the internet at the upcoming European summit in Venezuela. And going to talk about ways to make internet providers more responsible or to say go after internet providers who may be somehow enabling the radicalization process. Robyn?</s>CURNOW: Inspired by or directed by ISIS. Still a deep concern there to French authorities. Jim Bittermann, appreciate it. Well, you're watching CNN. On Sunday, it will be 15 years since the 9/11 terror attacks here in the U.S. Images like these ones of the aftermath in New York will forever be etched into the minds of Americans and people around the world. Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives that day, in the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil. And one lasting impact for the nation is a shaken sense of security. A new CNN/ORC poll shows that half of Americans thinks acts of terrorism are likely to happen around the anniversary this year. And then its current climate of increased global terror, that number is up from 39 percent of feared attacks on the 10th anniversary which was of course, five years ago. And now we're getting also a closer look at what it was like inside the World Trade Center towers during the attacks. It's part of an award- winning documentary called "9/11" recently acquired by CNN films and updated for this anniversary. We want to show you some of it but we also want to warn you that the images are intense and disturbing even 15 years on.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was just before 10:00. A little over an hour since the first plane hit. Firefighters from all over the city were inside those towers. Hundreds of them.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I remember I'm filming Chief Pfeifer, and he's on the radio.</s>CURNOW: Now the movie just fades to black. That documentary, "9/11, 15 Years Later" will air this Sunday here at CNN. And a couple hours from now here on the Idesk, I'll interview the child of a firefighter who lost his life in the attack. Stay with us.