Sad news Feel sorry for the victims and my heart goes to their families.

Italy cable car fall: Eight dead after accident near Lake Maggiore https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-57219737

I'm just a dumb IT engineer, not familiar with cable cars at all. How could one fall? Does the cable need to rip or what?

Ooof - this really hit home:

"Officials say two children, aged five and nine, were taken from the scene by helicopter to a Turin hospital. They are the only survivors of 11 passengers who had been on board when the cable car crashed..."

Very sad news, I'm sure at lot of people's families are going through a terrible time.

I took this cable car once, I think back in 2014, Stresa is a really beautiful place and the views were stunning, I just saw on the news that the cable even went through a refurb in the last few years,its very sad and shocking news all round!

Pictures appear to show that the cable is intact.

The most likely point of failure, I'd have thought, would be the mechanism attaching the car to the cable; this would normally involve a hooked arm that goes over the cable and is securely bolted on, although there are loads of variations. In some cases, usually involving high winds, the locking mechanism has been known to fail and allow the 'hook' to jump off the cable.

Very odd. It appears to be wrapped around a tree to the side of (not directly below) the cables. I wonder if it was hit by a gust of wind, hit a tree, pulling it from the cable.

I've been to Mottarone, albeit by motorcycle where I discovered that I'd forgotten to swap plates and and had to sneak back to Switzerland without getting stopped!

Tom

There were some heavy winds yesterday and today.

Tom

Death toll now up to 12 according to the BBC article.

Also
"The cause of the incident remains unclear, but local reports suggest the cable carrying it may have failed about 300m (984ft) from the top of the mountain."

Or be hit by a USian jet:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavale...disaster_(1998)

Tom

I remember that one. Pretty bad that the crew got in more trouble for trying to wipe the black box than for killing 20 odd people.

Yep, they should have spent some quality time in an Italian jail.

Tom

13 now...very very sad. We used to work across the water in Ispra.

Yes, they seem to think it was the cable that caused it.

https://www.bluewin.ch/fr/infos/fait...ur-722182.html

Of the two children flown to hospital, one is in a critical condition so death toll may yet go up.

That is sad, wish everyone to be well and strong.

As usual, after such an event every cable car in Alps will be checked thoroughly for PR reasons, but nevertheless expect persuading my OH to use any of those will become an extra challenge on its own.

So, a dozen people die in a tourist contraption failure and it's major news, 20x that die in Israel and Gaza and it's no big deal.

The mind boggles.

Tom

What‘s even worse, is that those two children will most likely have lost their parents in this terrible incident, even if they survive

That was an "accident" waiting to happen; only a matter of time before it blew up again. It'll never stop until one or the other is completely destroyed.

Not to derail this thread, but Israel/Palestine was hardly an „accident“. Neither is this terrible tragedy at Lago Maggiore that happened so close to home. It‘s an event that should never have been allowed to happen, and that someone/authorities will be held accountable for. My heart really goes out to the families that lost their loved ones while on a day-out after being locked-down

And the toll is 14, the child has died.