The April 17, 2025, a serious accident hit the cable car of Mount Faitowhich connects Castellammare di Stabia to the top of the mountain, in the province of Naples.
According to the official reconstructions, around the 15:00the leaning cable of the system would have broken, causing the fall of one of the cabins on duty.
What do we know about the incident
The accident involved two cabins: a cabin, closer to the mountain station, rushed after hitting a pylon. There were five people on board: four deceased, including the driver Carmine spoken and three foreign tourists. A fifth passenger, a 30 -year -old Israeli tourist, was extracted alive and transported in serious condition to the hospital of the sea in Naples. The second cabin, remained suspended lower, transported eleven people. The passengers were rescued after hours of complex rescue operations.
The weather conditions, characterized by dense fog and gusts of wind, made rescue operations even more difficult.
How a cable car works
A cable car in Va-e-Vieni, like that of Faito, works thanks to:
load -bearing cables, which support the weight of the cabins; cables betweenwhich drag the cabins along the way.
The breakdown of a cable between, as in this case, can compromise the balance and movement of the cabin. The cabins are also equipped with emergency braking systems, but the impact against a pylon can cause irreversible structural damage.
The investigations in progress
The Prosecutor of Torre Annunziata has opened an investigation into culpable disaster.
The Minister of Infrastructure, Matteo Salvini, asked for an urgent relationship on the incident. The president of the Campania Region, Vincenzo De Luca, said that the plant had been subjected to maintenance a few days earlier.
The investigations will focus on:
- State of the ropes and mechanical components
- Maintenance and verification procedures
- Any anomalies recorded in recent weeks.
Historical precedents
It is not the first serious accident for this infrastructure. In the 1960Faito’s cable car was the scene of another disaster: a cabin precipitated due to a breakdown, causing the death of Four people and over thirty injured.
A wider reflection
This accident rekindles the debate on the safety of fune infrastructure. Hundreds of similar systems are active in Italy: their reliability depends on rigorous maintenance, updated monitoring technologies and independent controls. Events like this, albeit rare, show how apparently safe systems also need constant attention
