Cable Car Tragedy in Italy Claims Lives of Four Tourists

On Thursday afternoon, a catastrophic cable car accident on Monte Faito, south of Naples, resulted in the death of at least four individuals, according to Italian authorities. The cable car tumbled down the mountainside, leading to a fifth person's critical injuries, as reported by Luca Cari, spokesperson for Italy's firefighters. The specific cause of the incident remains unclear, and the identities of the victims, who were all tourists and included an EAV transport employee, have not yet been disclosed.

Nine other passengers found themselves stranded on a different cable car, which had stalled due to the incident. Rescue teams worked tirelessly to save the stranded individuals, utilizing harnesses to safely bring them down to the ground. The local prosecutor's office has initiated an investigation into the crash circumstances. More than 50 firefighters participated in the rescue, facing adverse weather conditions, including strong winds and fog. Campania's governor, Vincenzo De Luca, emphasized the cable car's significance to tourism, connecting Castellammare di Stabia, a town of 66,000 residents, to a scenic plateau known for its stunning vistas of the Gulf of Naples and Mount Vesuvius.

This tragedy echoes another disaster in Italy's recent history, where a cable car crash in Piedmont in 2021 claimed 14 lives due to cable failure and brake malfunctions, marking the nation's deadliest cable car incident since 1998 when 20 people perished in a ski lift disaster caused by a military jet. EAV chairman Umberto De Gregorio characterized the incident as a "tragic and unpredictable event," noting that the cable car had only resumed operations for the tourist season recently.

Elisabetta Povoledo, a long-experienced journalist based in Rome, contributed to the coverage of this heart-wrenching event.