London - A pilot and his passenger made a "miraculous" escape after a crash which left their plane tangled upside down in a ski lift.
Remarkably, the two men got away from the smash in the Italian Alps without serious injuries.
The 62-year-old pilot was taken to hospital after being thrown out of the plane and on to the wing. And the passenger, a 55-year-old Italian tourist, was unscathed.
The army, fire brigade, cave and mountain rescue services with two helicopters were involved in saving the men from the light aircraft as it dangled precariously in the cables.
It took the 20-strong team 90 minutes to bring them down with ropes. The crash happened at midday on Sunday in the resort of Prato Valentino, northeast of Milan. Nobody was on the chairlift at the time as the resort has not yet opened for the ski season.
A spokesperson for Italy’s cave rescue unit said: "It was a miraculous escape. The plane crashed into the cables but fortunately it became stuck rather than crashing to the ground. The rescue operation was very tricky. The rescuers had to very carefully manoeuvre along the cables very, very slowly. We didn't want the cables moving any more than necessary.
"Ropes were then secured around the two men. The whole operation to bring them down to safety took an hour and a half. We had 20 rescue personnel and two helicopters involved. It was a miracle."
Officials are now investigating what caused the accident.