A British tourist who was among four killed in Italy after a cable car suddenly broke near a mountain and plunged into the ground has been named.
Elaine Margaret Winn, 58, was tragically killed in the horror accident, along with one other unidentified Brit, an Israeli tourist named as Janan Suliman, 25, and the driver of the cable car, Carmine Parlato, 59, when its main wire snapped near Mount Faito at around 3pm on Thursday. Officials said another person – a man aged around 30, perhaps of Israeli nationality – was left “extremely seriously injured” in the crash and airlifted to hospital. Another cable, car carrying 16 people, was then left trapped in the air as a result of the incident and had to be rescued, with footage by local media showing them transferring cars in harnesses. Italian prosecutors have since opened a multiple manslaughter probe into the crash, which is said to have occured over a steep drop.
Tour operator Maurizio Zurolo was close friends with Carmine Parlato, the cable car operator who died. He described the worker, whose son is a student in Milan, as: “A very humble man. A friend, a great worker”. And he revealed: “I had said goodbye to Carmine just yesterday. Here in front of my company. What happened represents a terrible tragedy for the city. It’s a disaster. But more than anything, for us it is the loss of a man, Carmine, of great human value.”
He added: “My heart is broken. Mine and that of many friends and work colleagues”. Mr Zurolo said Carmine “was in love with Monte Faito and Castellammare, an expert on these places.” He said: “When we started as an info point for Funivai, he gave me a lot of advice.”For a while I also had his son Mario at my side, whom I hug very tightly.”
The cable car offered tourists panoramic views of nearby Mount Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples, travelling 3km between the Italian town of Castellamare and the summit of the 1,100 metre Mount Faito. High winds and fog hampered efforts by mountain rescue teams and more than 50 firefighters trying to reach those injured in the accident yesterday, which is feared to have been caused by a cable suddenly breaking.
The cable car had only recently resumed operations for the season after being closed over winter. La Repubblica say the cabin was “almost at the station” when the cable gave way, causing it to descend rapidly for several metres before crashing into a support pillar. The winds are feared to have played a part in the accident.
Umberto De Gregorio, chairman of the EAV public transport company in charge of the cable car service, described Thursday’s incident as a “tragedy”. He wrote on Facebook: “The cabin at the top has crashed, casualties are feared.” Mayor Luigi Vicinanza Sindaco, who is due to visit the area of the accident, shared his distress online. He said in a statement on Facebook: ” Due to the serious events of the Faito cable car, all events planned for the Easter holidays are cancelled.”
An initial inspection was carried out on the vehicle together with the prosecutor Giuliano Schioppi, on duty when the accident occurred. A delegation from the National Agency for the Safety of Railways and Road and Motorway Infrastructure (Ansfisa) also reached Castellammare di Stabia yesterday evening “to carry out further checks on the system”.
It is believed the issue of maintenance and the choice to run the cable car despite the strong wind and the yellow alert will be the main aspects under consideration by investigators. The cableway, says Eav CEO Umberto De Gregorio, had opened “ten days ago with all safety conditions. What happened is an unimaginable, unforeseeable tragedy, which will obviously need to be clarified. The director of operations decides on weather conditions,” says De Gregorio. “In this case, it was evidently deemed that the conditions were not such as to warrant a closure.”
Ansfisa explained that the cableway had been inspected in March 2024. It said checks had been “accompanied by specific reports signed by the director of operations, who certifies the full suitability of the system to continue its activity in safety”.
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