THE’Accident at the Faito cable car of April 17, 2025, in which the breaking of the traction cable precipitated a cabin with 5 people on board causing 4 victims and one injured in serious conditionis not the first in the plant that connects Castellammare di Stabia to Monte Faito, in Campania: the most serious historian It was the 1960 Ferragosto accident, in which the downhill cabin came to the valley at too high speeds falling on the tracks of the Circumvesuviana railway causing 4 victims and 30 injured.
The disaster of August 15, 1960: what happened
The August 15, 1960exactly 8 years after the inauguration of the cable car that was considered one best in Europe, the first tragic accident at the Faito plant occurred. The cabin that started from Monte with numerous passengers on board, which came near the first stand, did not slow down the race as it should have had. He then came downstream without braking and crashed on the tracks of the Circumvesuviana.
The disaster led to the death of the cabin conductor Alberto Lanzaof the pensioner Costanzo di Girolamoof the merchant Francesco Cimmino and son Luigionly 9 years old. A balance that would have been much more tragic if the conductor of the cabin that was going up, Angelo the mountainhad not noticed the excessive speed of the other cabin and had not opened the emergency brake in time to prevent his cabin – he hosted 40 passengers – He crashed on the mountain station.
For the disaster they were condemned for quadruple murder and culpable injury, the manager of the system of the plant Raffaele Brancolithe supervisor Ruggiero Liguori and the Addatto to the machine room Ciro Ruggiero. According to the judges, Brancoli would have agreed to the Removal of speed limits – which could have avoided the tragedy – to allow a greater number of racing and therefore an increase in the revenues.
The latest accident: the Blackout of 2021
After the 1960 disaster, extraordinary maintenance works were started at the cable car: the cabins were replaced and the entire system was updated. Since then there have been no more serious accidents up to the tragic facts of April 17, 2025. The perhaps most remarkable accident occurred in July 2021when due to a blackout electric a cabin with 31 people inside (5 of whom are children) remained suspended for over an hour during the descent. Fortunately, apart from the fright there were no victims or injuries, thanks to the intervention of the generator and rescue teams.
The cable car was closed in 2012 and reopened in 2016. He recently had reached the record of 105,000 users per year. The plant had been reopened just a week before the last accident, on April 10, 2025, after a period of control and maintenance work.
