 This video is proudly supported by my patreon and youtube members. Sign up to gain early access to videos from just one dollar one pound or one euro. It is the evening of the 9th of March 1976 and tourists are queuing up to ride a cable car down from Mount Cermis. Most of the travellers boarding the cabins look forward to a five to six minute long journey, a descent with spectacular views of the North Eastern Italian Dolomites. Because of the large number of people waiting for cabins, operators cram as many into each vehicle. One such cabin has 44 people aboard, more than the recommended 40. But the operator thinks, well some are children so that couldn't count as a whole person, right? The cabin sets off down the mountain. What all aboard don't know is that in just a few minutes, only one would still be alive, as they have become unwitting participants in the world's worst cable car disaster. But it wouldn't actually be the only disaster to befall the cable car. But today we're looking at the first Cavalese cable car disaster. A little background goes a long way. A settlement existed on the site of Cavalese ever since the Bronze Ages. The town that became known as Cavalese started in the 12th century. The town went from strength to strength as it developed mills, sawmills and blacksmiths for copper manufacturing along the Gambis Brook. Like many towns with an impressive mountain range on their doorstep, tourism became a vital part of the local economy. Cavalese was no different, and during the 1900s, especially in the mid-century after World War II, the area saw droves of skiers, mountain climbers and general public go to Mount Cermis. The Dolomites Alps have become a world famous destination for skiers. In order to improve the town's connection to the ski resorts and offer expedited travel up the mountain, a cable car was constructed in 1964. The line ran for roughly three miles and had three stops. Cavalese, a middle stop at Doste Loresi and at the top Mount Cermis. The system used two cables to guide and safely hold each carriage which are known as cabins. These are known as the static track cable and the traction or haul cable. The static cable is just as it says it doesn't move and the carriage of the cabin which is the bit that has the wheels run on the track cable. The hauling cable is gripped onto and thus moves the cabin up and down the mountain. As one cabin goes up the other one goes down and basically they shuttle from each end of their respective lines as long as the system is in operation. The two cables that are used should never really touch as well something stationary rubbed by something moving causes friction which can cause damage to the cables. As such cable cars like this have safety systems that stop the haulage cable if this is detected. The system at Cavalese had just that but it could be overridden. It's not advisable but can be used in certain emergency situations. The cable car was programmed to slow down slightly when travelling over the pylons to reduce wear on the cabins carriage and the cables. The cabins were rated to carry a weight of 40 people and had a journey time of roughly six and a half minutes. Sometimes however this system must have felt like throughput was not enough as queues often developed during peak periods and one such was the evening on the 9th of March 1976 for disaster. It is the evening of the 9th of March 1976 and cableway operator Carlo Schweizer is working his shift. It is a busy evening and the queues are starting to mount up. The cableway officials had found a sneaky way to improve the six and a half minute journey time. They found that if they altered the program that slows down the cabin when it navigates across the pylon they could get some of that time reduced by speeding up the cabin. By doing this they managed to shave a minute off the journey time. Operators were also encouraged to squeeze as many people into each cabin and this would exceed the 40 person weight limit. Because of the increased speed and weight emergency shutoffs became common place as the two cables touched under the greater strain. Operators had become a little bit blasé to overriding the safety system but Carlo wouldn't really know much about this. He was a seasonal worker who had not been licensed or properly trained to operate the system. Carlo would on one particular cabin squeeze 44 people in. His justification would be that there were more children than the usual as such not being as heavy but it wasn't like he was getting out a scale to make everyone stand on it. This was around 5 16 p.m. The cabin was now full and was sent down its way towards the middle station. After this the cabin must negotiate the middle pylon. This evening it doesn't slow down due to the program change and bumps over at a speed of 10 meters per second. Due to the speed the cables crossover triggering the cable safety system grinding the cabin to a halt. Carlo's training sprung into action. Oh wait he actually wasn't trained. He was stumped and didn't know how to get the system up and running again. So he got on the phone for some help and this came from Aldo Guillen Mona who told him to bypass the safety system. You see this situation was common since the increase in speed the safety stop was overridden frequently and that's what would happen this evening. The cable car was restarted and the cabin continued to move. The engine pulling the haul cable powered up but the two cables were still crossed over. The excess weight exerted greater pressure on the static cable as the traction cable ground across it. Essentially it was like a saw cutting away at the track cable. In the opposite direction, in the second cabin, another operator, Giorgio Di Matteo would see the cabin moving but shooting sparks from the cables. He attempted to call us in but the phone in his cabin couldn't connect. 90 seconds later the track cable snaps plunging the cabin down 69 meters or 200 feet. But due to the safety system being overridden the engine winding the cable continued to run dragging the cabin along the ground between 100 and 200 meters. During the drag the three-ton carriage slammed into the roof of the cabin crushing it in. All but one of the 44 aboard lost their lives including 15 children and an 18-year-old cable car attendant. Some survived the fall only to be suffocated by the bodies of their fellow travellers. Carlo in the control room had to duck as the cables snapped back and crashed into the engine smashing the windows. Alessandra Piovacana survived the crash. She had been protected from the fall by the bodies of the victims and luckily had been in the front portion of the cabin which had been the least impacted. The operator in the other direction, Giorgio Di Matteo, got to earth safely by the use of an emergency ladder after being stranded for a little while between the middle stop and the pylon. With the worst cable car disaster in their hands investigators sought out to find out why and how the Cavalli system failed so catastrophically. The world's eyes were now on Italy as the news spread and was reported by some of the largest news organisations globally. The investigation investigators sought out advice from the cables manufacturer Achieri Ferraria Lombardi. After careful inspection they found grooves on the snapped line and signs of intense heat caused by friction. It was estimated that the heat was 1300 degrees Celsius. This pretty much unequivocally pointed blame at the cable crossover. This along with Di Matteo's witness statement of seeing sparks when the cabin was moving led investigators to say that it was the only possible and plausible hypothesis. The cable car owners claimed that the cable had been fully tested in October with the full weight of a cabin. Although it may be the case that it was tested, the test didn't take into account the cable crossover and overloading of passengers. This then pointed the blame away from manufacturing issues and more towards operational issues. Clearly Carlo was not properly trained for his job and it's easy to solely blame him but it goes higher than just the actions of one person on the day. After all if you don't properly tell someone how to do their job they will use their judgement which may overlook key safety points like don't overload. Carlo was also instructed over the phone to override the safety system. Lift officials would deny this phone call ever happened essentially trying to push Carlo under the bus. Carlo was found guilty at trial of manslaughter and sentenced to three years serving only nine months. Aldo, Guyan, Mona the one who ordered the override was also sentenced to three years on the same charges of manslaughter. The cable car was rebuilt only to be the scene for yet another disaster but maybe I'll cover that on another day. So I'm going to rate this disaster as negligent due to the terrible operation of the cable car that evening and a six on the legacy scale but an eight on the cable car only legacy scale. This is a plain difficult production. All videos on the channel are creative commons attribution share light license. Plain difficult videos are produced by me John in a currently dark and cold corner of southern London UK. I have youtube members and patrons who financially support the channel and I'd like to thank you and I'd also like to thank the rest of you for tuning in every week for your daily for your weekly dose of disasters. 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