New footage shows moment cable car in Italy snaps, plunges passengers to death

Recently released footage of the tragedy that struck the town of Stresa in Italy on May 23, revealed the moment when the Stresa-Mottarone cable car snapped, before it crashed in a wooded area, killing 13 and injuring two passengers.

New details have emerged of the horrific Stresa–Mottarone cable car crash as authorities continue to investigate if a crime has been committed. Among these are two videos, one recorded from inside and another outside near the station where the cable car was supposed to dock.

The one taken from the inside showed the passengers enjoying the panoramic views of the surrounding mountains as they prepared for their arrival at the station. They were very close to safety but the cabin suddenly jerked backward. The cable snapped and careened back down the mountain.

The second video, released by Italian media and obtained by The Sun, showed an engineer at the station waiting for the car to park. He is stunned at first and then became frantic as he realised the tragedy before him.

The cable car reportedly plunged down at 60mph before it crashed to the bottom and led to the death of 14 passengers. Thirteen died at the scene while two children were airlifted to a nearby hospital for treatment. One of the two patients died from cardiac arrest and the other lived. Five-year-old Eitan Biran, from Israel, is the only survivor. He was in the cable car with his parents and younger brother when the deadly crash happened.

The tragedy reportedly happened in seconds after the pulling cable snapped at around 12 p.m. The cabin then careened backwards via another cable and then the brakes failed, crashing the cable car into a pillar before it eventually became unhooked and was thrown 500 meters down from the summit of Mottarone, a mountain near Lake Maggiore in northern Italy.

Authorities have since made arrests on May 26. Three of the employees from the cable company were found to have deactivated the automatic emergency brakes because of a series of malfunctions in the past that caused the cable car to stop. Police discovered that one of the gondola brakes have been disabled with a steel clamp. If the emergency breaks had been functional, it would have kept the cable car steady after the cable snapped.