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It is the evening of the 9th of March 1976 and
tourists are queuing up to ride a cable car down from mount Cermis.
Most of the travelers boarding the cabins look forward to a 5-6 minute
descent filled with spectacular views of the north eastern Italian Dolomites.
Because of the large number of people waiting for cabins, operators cram each Vehicle to capacity.
One such cabin has 44 aboard, more than the recommended,
but the operator thinks well some are children so that can’t count as a whole person right?
The cabin sets off down the mountain,
what all aboard don’t know is that in just a few minutes only 1 would be alive,
as they have become unwitting participants in the worlds worst cable car disaster.
But it wouldn’t be the only disaster to befall the Cable car
today we are looking at the cavalese cable car disaster.
A little background goes a long way back
A settlement has existed on the site of Cavalese ever since the bronze ages,
the town which became to be known as Cavalese started in the 12th century.
The town went from strength to strength as it developed mills,
sawmills and blacksmiths for copper manufacturing along the Gambis brook.
Like many towns near an impressive mountain range on their doorstep,
tourism becomes a vital part of the local economy.
Cavalese is no different and during the 1900s especially mid century
after ww2 the area sees droves of skiers, mountain climbers and the general public.
The Dolomite alps have become famous for their ski slopes.
In order to improve the towns connection to the ski resorts and offer expedited
travel up the mountain a cable car was constructed in 1964.
The line ran for roughly 3 miles and had 3 stops
calavese a middle stop at Dos dei Laresi and at the top mount cermis.
The system used 2 cables to guide and safely hold each carriage known as a cabin.
These are known as the static track cable and the traction or haul cable.
The static cable is just that it doesn’t move and the carriage of
the cabin is this bit has wheels which run on the track cable.
The hauling cable is gripped on to and thus moves the cabin.
As one cabin goes up the other goes down,
basically they shuttle from each end of their respective lines.
The two cables should never touch as well something stationary rubbed
by something moving causes friction which can cause damage to the cables.
As such cable cars have safety systems that stop the haulage cable if this is detected.
And the system at cavalese had just that, but it could be overridden,
it’s not advisable, and should only be used in certain emergency situations.
The cable car was programmed to slow down slightly when traversing
the pylons to reduce wear on the cabins carriage and the cables.
The cabins were rated to carry the weight of 40 people, and had
a journey time of roughly 6 ½ minutes, sometimes however the system must have
felt like the throughput was not enough as ques often developed during peak periods.
One such was the evening of the 9th of March 1976.
The disaster
It is the evening of the 9th of March 1976 and cable way operator
Carlo Schweizer is working his shift, it is a busy evening and the ques are mounting up.
Cable way officials had found a way to improve the 6 ½ minute journey time on the cavalese cable car.
By altering the program that slows down the cabin when it navigates across a pylon,
they made it so that the reduction in speed was not as drastic so they had managed to
shave a minute off the journey time.
Operators were also encouraged to squeeze as
many people in each cabin this would exceed the 40 person weight limit.
Because of the increased speed and weight emergency shut offs
were commonplace as the two cables touched under the greater strain.
Operators had become blaze about overriding the safety system.
But Carlo wouldn’t really know much about that because he was
a seasonal worker who had not been licensed or properly trained to operate the system.
Carlo would on one particular cabin squeeze in 44 people,
his justification would be that there were more children than usual as such not being as heavy,
but it wasn’t like he was getting everyone to stand on scales.
This was around 5:16 pm, the cabin now full was sent on its way down towards the middle station.
After this the cabin must negotiate the middle pylon,
it doesn’t slow down due to the program change and bumps over at a speed of 10 m/s.
Due to this speed the cables crossover triggering the
cables safety system grinding the cabin to a halt.
Carlos training came into action, oh wait he wasn’t trained he was
stumped and didn’t know how to get the system up and running again.
So he got on the phone for some help,
this came from Aldo Gianmoena, who told him to bypass the safety system.
You see this situation was common since the increase in speed the safety stop was
overridden frequently and that’s what would happen this evening.
The cable car system was restarted and the cabin continued to move,
the engine pulling the haul cable powered up but the two cables were still crossed over.
The excess weight excreted greater pressure on the static
cable as the traction cable ground across it.
Essentially it was like a saw cutting away at the track cable,
in the opposite direction in the second cabin another operator, Giorgio Demattio,
could see the cabin moving but shooting sparks from the cables.
He tried to call this in but the phone on his cabin couldn’t connect.
90 seconds later the track cable snaps, plunging the cabin down 69 meters 200ft,
but due to the safety stop system being overridden the engine winding the cable
continues to turn, dragging the cabin along the ground between 100-200 meters.
During the drag the 3 ton carriage slammed into the roof of the cabin cruising its roof.
All but one of the 44 aboard lost their lives including 15
children and an 18 year old cable car attendant,
some survived the fall only to be suffocated by the bodies of their fellow travelers.
Carlo in the control room had to duck as the cable snapped back
and crashed into the engine smashing the windows.
Alessandra Piovesana survived the crash and was the only survivor; she had been
protected from the fall by the bodies of the victims and luckily had been
in the front portion of the cabin, which had been the least impacted.
The operator in the other direction Giorgio Demattio got to earth safely by the use of
an emergency ladder after being stranded for a little while between the middle stop and pylon.
With the worst cable car disaster in their hands investigators sought to
find out how and why the cavalese system failed catastrophically.
The worlds eyes were now on Italy as the news spread and was reported
by some of the largest new organisations globally.
The investigation.
Investigators sought out advice from the cables manufacturer,
Falck-Acciaierie e Ferriere Lombarde, after careful inspection they found
grooves on the snapped line and signs of intense heat caused by friction.
It was estimated the head was thirteen hundred degrees centigrad.
This pretty unequivocally pointed blame at cable crossover,
this along with demattios witness statement of seeing sparks when the cabin was moving
led investigators to say it was “the only possible and plausible hypothesis".
The cable car owners claimed the cable had been
fully tested in October with the full weight of a cabin,
although it maybe the case the tests didn’t take into account cable crossover and over loading.
This then Pointed the blame away from
manufacturing issues and more towards operations issues.
Clearly Carlo was not properly trained for his job,
it’s easy to solely blame him but it goes higher than just his actions on the day.
After all of you don’t properly tell someone how to do a job they will use
their judgment which May overlook key safety points like don’t over load.
Carlo was also instructed over the phone to override the safety system, lift officials
would deny this phone call ever happened, essentially trying to push Carlow under the bus.
Carlo was found guilty at trial of manslaughter sentenced to 3 years, serving 9 months.
Aldo Gianmoena the one who ordered the override was also sentenced to
three years, on charges of manslaughter.
The cable car was rebuilt only to be the scene for yet another disaster,
but maybe I’ll cover that in another day.
So I’m going to rate this disaster as negligent due to the terrible operation of the cable
car that evening, and a 6 on the legacy scale but an 8 on a cable car only legacy scale!
This is the aftermath of one of the world's worst cable car disasters.
It is the evening of 9th of March 1976 and one of the cabins of the cavalese
cavalese car is full to the brim, 4 more than there should have been.
Shortly after the cabin departed for its journey
down the mountain of cermis it plunged into the ground.
It would be discovered that a vital safety system
had been by passed allowing the two cables to cut each other.
In addition to this the cabin speed been I screamed to reduce journey time.
As a result 43 people would die, want to know more check out my full video…
https://reuters.screenocean.com/record/242456
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/9/newsid_4213000/4213355.stm
https://www.ilpost.it/2016/03/09/disastro-funivia-cermis/
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1976/03/10/75578476.html?pageNumber=59