Lake Maggiore
Helicopter flies crashed cable car into the valley
A helicopter from the Italian fire brigade flies the white tarpaulin cabin of the crashed Mottarone cable car from Lake Maggiore into the valley. Photo: Antonio Calanni / AP / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
On Pentecost Sunday (May 23), the cabin in Italy fell into the depths because the pulling rope broke shortly before the mountain station. Now it is being investigated further.
Five and a half months after the cable car accident from Lake Maggiore with 14 dead, the crashed gondola was transported away. A helicopter flew the cabin on Monday morning from Monte Mottarone into the valley, where it will be examined further by experts.
The heavy-duty helicopter lifted the gondola, which was wrapped in white tarpaulin, with a long rope and pulled away after a few seconds, as can be seen on video recordings.
On Pentecost Sunday (May 23), the cabin fell because the pulling rope broke shortly before the mountain station. According to previous knowledge, safety brackets were blocked and thus an emergency braking of the gondola was prevented. This raced down the valley, jumped out of the suspension and crashed into a piece of forest, where it remained wedged on a steep slope on tree trunks. Several employees of the operating company are being investigated.
In addition to the forensic investigations, special forces had secured the gondola and other evidence. For several weeks, the fire brigade had been preparing the evacuation, felled tree trunks and erected a metal structure on which the cabin was placed. Most recently, she was wrapped in foil so as not to lose any evidence on the flight into the valley. The gondola was then driven into a hall with a semi-trailer for further investigations by the experts from the public prosecutor’s office and defense lawyers.
In the accident in the spring, only the then five-year-old Eitan survived. Because his parents, the little brother and two great-grandparents were killed in the accident, a custody battle broke out between Eitan’s families in Israel and Italy. The maternal grandfather flew the boy to Tel Aviv against a court order; a court there recently ruled that Eitan should return to Italy to see his paternal aunt, who had been appointed as guardian.