Two British tourists are supposed to be one of the four people killed when the tractie cable of a cable car broke and the cabin dropped to the ground in South Italy.
Four tourists and an engineer were aboard the cable car when it dived in the forest in Naples on Thursday afternoon at “maximum speed” in the forest in Naples, which caused a large rescue operation in the light of bad weather and fog.
Four people were killed, while a fifth person who was hurled out of the hut was evacuated in a serious condition by helicopter, said Mountain Rescue Services and firefighters.
The accident happened when the cable car was approaching the Monte Faito landing station, a peak of about 45 km southeast of the city overlooking the walkers on Naples and Vesuvius.
“What happened is an unimaginable and unpredictable tragedy,” said Umberto de Gregorio, chairman of the EAV Public Transport Company that runs the cable car service on Facebook.
The accident happened when the cable car was approaching the Monte Faito landing station, a peak of about 45 km southeast of the city overlooking the hikers on Naples and Vesuvius (AP)
According to Italian media, two of the four were killed after the supporting cable broke, British subjects on vacation. Another was a cable operator from a nearby city, Il Corriere della Sera reported, and the fourth was an Israeli tourist.
A second Israeli was wounded and in a stable but serious state the Naples hospital said that treated him on Friday.
Vincenzo de Luca, the Governor of Campania, told Rainews that the “two tourist couples” in the cabin when a disaster struck shortly after 3 p.m. along the cable road that connects the city of Castellammare di Stabia in Naples with the top.
The mayor of Castellammare di Stabia, Luigi Vicinanza, said reporters: “The tractie cable broke, the emergency brake worked downstream, but apparently not those on the cabin that entered the station at the top of Faito.”
Another cabin stopped in the mid-air near the foot of the mountain, with 16 passengers evacuated with harnesses, images on Rai TV and other media showed.
Firefighters who work on the Monte Faito cable rink site on Friday (Vigili del Fuoco/AFP via Getty I)
The Luca told Rai that missing and strong wind hinders the rescue.
The cable car services had just been reopened for the spring and summer season ten days earlier, Mr. De Gregorio said.
Local media reported that an investigation into the incident was opened by the Torre Annunziata Public Procuror office.
Mr De Luca told Rainews during the rescue mission: “The fog and bad weather hinder operations, but it could have been worse – many human lives were saved. The company told us that maintenance had been done.
“It is likely that the cabin descended at maximum speed and touches the central pylons, now we have to do everything to help the wounded.
“The cable car had been closed for many years, it was reworked in 2017 and renovation work was done.”
The cable car services had just been reopened for the spring and summer season ten days earlier, said Mr De Gregorio (AP)
Angelo Lustro, general secretary of the Cgil -Union said, “We are confronted with a tragedy that makes us out of breath and speechless.”
He confirmed the engineer as one of the victims and added: “This is the time for mourning and silence for the victims of this immense and absurd tragedy. Then the time will be to determine the causes and who is responsible.”
Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli expressed his participation in the victims and said: “Monte Faito is a symbolic place. As a guardian of natural beauty to see it today the scene of such a tragedy, we are deeply sad.
“Our most sincere thoughts go to the affected community and all those who are confronted with the consequences of this tragedy.”
In 2021, 14 people died in Italy then a cable car that connected the Northern Lake Maggiore with a nearby mountain in the ground.
