[mickey finn]

“It appears that the chairlift's fold-down seat was somehow not in the lowered position, which caused the man to partially fall through the resulting gap.”

It sounds like the lift ops failed to fully put the seat down when starting the lift for the day. I think the seats are put up at night to keep snow from accumulating.

[Paladin2]

"It sounds like the lift ops failed to fully put the seat down"

It looks like a detachable chair. Those thinks move along at .25 mph when loading. Plenty of time to look at the condition of the seat before sitting down. If it looks bad, just skate forward and to the side. Lift attendants generally have nothing to do at those lifts but to select the next song, eat their lunch and check lift tickets.