Brit Ski Girl Crashes Through Ski Hut Window

A nine-year-old British girl has been airlifted to hospital after losing control of her ski’s and flying through a ski hut window in the Austrian ski resort of Matrei in East Tyrol this morning (Monday).

India Furness, who was on a skiing holiday with her parents and two older siblings was skiing down the piste at the Goldried resort when she lost control.

She was going at such a speed she smashed through a safety net and took off, flying over a wooden veranda and wooden fence and in through a first floor window at the hut - where she ended up unconscious after crashing through the glass.

She was found curled up on the floor in a corner of the hut by rescue workers called by her father Nigel, 50, and the rest of the family who were following behind the girl.

Local police spokesman Walter Moser said: "The accident happened on Austria's highest mountain the Grossglockner and the heart itself was 2100 meters above sea level. The snow is extremely icy at the moment. It makes it very difficult to slow down and she seems to have picked up too much speed and lost control as a result.

"What robbery saved her life was the fact that she was so well equipped – she had full eye protection on and a crash helmet when she went through the window. Because of the height and the cold it was a thick therma-glass window."

Emergency doctor Wolfgang Kratzer who was with the rescue helicopter and treated the girl said: "Judging by how far she was inside the hut she was going way too fast. She was lying on the floor in the far corner of the room where she had landed."

Mountain rescue helicopter the Martin 4 flew the injured youngster to Innsbruck hospital where she remains in intensive care.

Doctors said her condition was serious but not life threatening.
Austrian Times