Portland Aerial Tram Emergency Evacuation Drill This Sunday

PORTLAND, OR – Look up in the sky. It's a bird. It's a plane. It's the Portland Aerial Tram stuck in the air with four people on board.

Don't worry. They won't be in any actual danger.

On Sunday morning, the annual evacuation exercise will take place. Get all the latest information on what's happening in your community by signing up for Patch's newsletters and breaking news alerts

As part of the exercise, members of the Portland Fire & Rescue Technical Rescue Team will work to safely get four "passengers" from the tram to the Casey Eye Institute's parking lot rood 100 feet below.

The passengers will actual be employees of Doppelmayr USA, which operates the tram with Oregon Health & Science University. The tram is owned by the Portland Bureau of Transportation.

The exercise will take place beginning on Sunday at 9 a.m.. People wishing to watch the rescue workers use ropes and harnesses to get the "riders" to safety will be able to do so from various locations.

People are asked to not enter the parking garage during the exercise.

The tram, which opened in Jan. 2007, carries about 9,000 people a day at 22 mph on a 3,000 foot journey from the OHSU Center for Health & Healing and the Kohler Pavillion and back again.

Photo via PBOT.