Two British tourists are among the victims of a cable car disaster which saw their cabin plunge into a forest at an Italian beauty spot, killing all but one person on board.
A cable broke on the link taking tourists from the historic town of Castellammare di Stabia, on the Gulf of Naples, up Monte Faito, sending the cabin crashing some 28 metres to earth and crumpling as it hit the tree canopy below.
Firefighters and mountain rescue teams rushed to the scene of the crash, which took place near the station at the top of the 3,700ft peak, and battled strong winds and thick fog as they worked at the scene late into the night.
The unnamed British couple lost their lives alongside an Israeli woman and the driver of the cable car, named as 59-year-old Carmine Parlato, according to Italian media.
Rescuers incredibly found one survivor in the wreckage, reportedly another Israeli tourist who was the partner of the Israeli woman. He was seriously injured, suffering multiple bone fractures, and was airlifted to hospital in Naples.
The horrific accident happened just ten days after the site reopened for the tourist season, with the cable car company insisting that all the relevant tests had been carried out and that it was ‘an unimaginable, unforeseeable tragedy.’
The disaster also came less than four years after a malfunction saw passengers stranded when the cable car lost power. There were no fatalities and all on board were rescued after a few hours, with an investigation launched at the time.
The cable snapped and the car nearest the top of the route came crashing down, according to the cable car operator, who claimed that it smashed into a pylon as it plummeted.
In this photo released by the Italian Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps on Thursday, April 17, 2025, rescuers reach for the smashed gondola of the Mt. Faito cable car near Naples in southern Italy
Four people have died, one is seriously injured and another is missing after a cable car crashed to the ground in Monte Faito
Around 16 passengers were evacuated from the cabin at the bottom of the route, with footage showing how tourists were removed from the cabin one by one using harnesses
Prosecutors have now launched a manslaughter probe into yesterday’s disaster, with the reason as to why the two cable cars on the route ground to a halt still unclear.
Officials have said they do not know why the traction cable gave way, but have suggested that an emergency brake system failed to work as it did so.
The lower cabin’s brake system appeared to work and it remained suspended, with the eight tourists and operator inside evacuated by rescuers.
Confirming the final death toll, the local fire service wrote on Telegram: ‘Four lifeless bodies were found, while a fifth injured person was rescued and taken to hospital.’
The Israeli man remains in a ‘critical but stable’ condition, according to an update from the Ospedale del Mare in Naples on Friday.
The patient is ‘intubated for airway protection and ventilatory support’ and ‘currently mechanically ventilated under deep sedation,’ with doctors adding that his prognosis remains guarded.
Footage shared on social media showed a survivor being lowered out of the cable car and towards the ground.
The Torre Annunziata public prosecutor’s office confirmed it has opened an investigation into the disaster, though it is unclear who is under investigation.
The scenic cable car has been taking tourists and Neopolitans to the summit of Monte Faito for decades since it first opened in 1952, with the mountain popular for the panoramic views it offers of the bay of Naples and Vesuvius.
Thursday’s tragedy was not the first on the historic cableway. On August 15, 1960, one of the cabins reached the bottom without being able to stop its run.
It fell onto the underlying tracks of the Circumvesuviana railway line, killing four people and injuring 31.
The cable car underwent significant maintenance work in the aftermath and the cabins were replaced.
Rescuers on the site where a cable car carrying tourists south of Naples has crashed after the cable snapped, killing at least four people and injuring one in Castellamare di Stabia, near Naples, Italy
Umberto de Gregorio, the head of the company which owns the cable car, insisted today that it reopened last week ‘with all the required safety conditions’ after three months of maintenance work.
‘What happened today is an unimaginable, unforeseeable tragedy,’ he said. ‘We are devastated, the cable car is a jewel in the crown.
‘We have been testing for three months. The company has done everything it had to in terms of safety and for this reason no one can explain what happened. It will certainly have to be ascertained, but it will take time’.
Describing the series of events that unfolded yesterday, he went on: ‘The towing cable of the cabin that was going up broke.
‘The cabin downstream had no consequences, it just got stuck and all the people were saved.
‘The cabin upstream, however, we believe went at full speed against the pylon and then fell.’
Strong winds hit the area at the time sparking speculation that the adverse weather may have caused the accident, but Mr de Gregorio denied this.
‘There is a complex system that blocks the cable car when the wind exceeds the warning level, so it was not that’.
Speaking on the tragic accident, Naples mayor Gaetano Manfredi said: ‘I express deep condolences, on behalf of the Metropolitan City of Naples and myself, for the victims of the tragedy that occurred this afternoon due to the collapse of the Faito cable car cabin’.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is currently in Washington attending talks with US President Donald Trump, has also offered her condolences.
A statement shared by by the Italian government said: ‘Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is in Washington for a meeting with US President Donald Trump, learned of the tragic accident that occurred today on the Monte Faito cable car and wishes to express, on behalf of the Italian Government and her own, her closeness and deepest condolences to the families of the victims and the injured.’
President Meloni is in contact with the Minister for Civil Protection Nello Musumeci and the Head of the Department Fabio Ciciliano.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said in a statement: ‘We are monitoring the situation following an incident in Italy and are in contact with the local authorities’.
The Monte Faito cable car connects the historic town of Castellammare di Stabia with Monte Faito
The horrific accident on Thursday happened just a week after the site reopened for the season
Italy has been rocked by cable car tragedies in the past, with 14 people killed when a wire snapped and flung a carriage 65ft to the ground in 2021.
The cable car had been carrying the passengers up a mountain overlooking Lake Maggiore in the western Alps when it dropped 1,000ft away from the station.
Disturbing footage of the disaster shows how close the passengers were to safety before the cabin shot down the mountain.
It shows a cable snapping, sending the car and its passengers inside careening back down as they were brutally thrown around the cabin.
In separate video, the carriage can be seen flying off and falling out of view behind the crest of a hill where it crashed, killing 14 of the 15 people onboard.
In another gondola disaster, 20 people were killed in the Dolomites when a US airforce pilot crashed into the cables holding a carriage full of holidaymakers.
The 1998 tragedy in Cavalese came 22 years after another in the same town, which saw 43 people killed when their cabin skidded 300 feet and was crushed.
