March 9: On This Day in World History … briefly

1976: Forty-three people plunge to their death in the worst cable-car accident

The Cavalese cable car disaster of 1976 was the deadliest cable car crash in history. On March 9, the steel supporting cable of an aerial tramway broke as a fully loaded cable car was descending from Mount Cermis near the Italian ski resort of Cavalese in the Dolomites, 40km (25 miles) north-east of Trento.

The cabin fell some 200m (660ft) down a mountainside, then skidded 100m (330ft) before coming to a halt in a grassy meadow. In the fall, the three-ton overhead carriage assembly fell on top of the car, crushing it. Forty-three people died, including 15 children between the ages of seven and 15 and the 18-year-old cable car attendant. Initial reports stated 42 dead with one missing; however, the last body, that of Fabio Rustia, was found later. The only survivor was a 14-year-old Milanese girl, Alessandra Piovesana, who was on a school trip and was with two friends when the crash happened. She testified in the succeeding trials and later worked as a journalist for the science magazine Airone, before her death from illness in 2009.

The cable car had a capacity of 40 people or 7 000 pounds (3 200kg). At the time of the crash in the late afternoon it had 44 occupants – justified by the operator, as many of them were children. Most of the victims were West Germans from Hamburg. The inquest found that during high winds the stationary and the moving steel cables crossed and one severed the other. The automatic train stop safety system, which could have prevented the disaster, was switched off. Four lift officials were jailed for their part in the disaster.

Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.

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