Dramatic scenes:

16-year-old dangles from chairlift and crashes

Dramatic incident in the mountains of California. A 16-year-old snowboarder threatens to slide out of her seat on a chairlift. Two passengers were initially just able to hold on to the teenager, but a short time later the young woman plunged into the depths.

The incident took place on 27 January and was captured on Instagram (see post below).

Teenager is initially held down by ski guests
You can see the 16-year-old girl initially dangling from the chairlift and being held on to by the other skiers, who were apparently unable to pull her back up.

The 16-year-old dangled there for several minutes while the ski resort staff responded with a net to cushion her fall. Eventually she is seen falling down.

Taken to hospital
"Five Mammoth Mountain employees and eight guests responded immediately and placed the deceleration net under the guest," the mountain operators said in a written statement. "As the guest slipped from the grasp of his chairmates, the net slowed their fall but was unable to stop it. The guest was taken to Mammoth Hospital for examination. Our thoughts are with the guest and his family".