100 people evacuated

Gondolas crashed into mountain and valley station

The mountain station affected can be seen in the photo taken by the fire department.(Bild: Vigili del Fuoco)

A serious accident has occurred in the Italian Alps: At enormous speed, one gondola crashed into the barrier of the mountain station and another into the valley station. The ski slopes were closed as a precaution.

There is an exceptional atmosphere in a ski resort near the municipality of Macugnaga: three of the 15 passengers in the gondola that crashed into the mountain station at full speed were injured, as was the gondola operator in the valley, according to the Italian fire department.

For several hours, around 100 people, including some children, had to remain at an altitude of around 2,800 meters until they could finally be evacuated by helicopter. However, there was no danger to life.

Here you can see the rescue operation:

Here the victims are brought down to the valley:

Cable car only recently modernized
The cable car was built in 1962 and underwent a comprehensive modernization at the beginning of 2023, which included replacing the cabins and motors. The work cost around two million euros and was mainly financed by the Piedmont region. The accident occurred at the height of the ski season, when many holidaymakers from Italy and abroad are on vacation in the Italian Alps.

The affected mountain station can be seen in the photo taken by the fire department.(Bild: Vigili del Fuoco)

Technical problem
The managing director of the company that operates the cable car spoke of a technical problem. "According to initial information, the system did not brake properly when entering the station and crashed into the station railing," Filippo Besozzi told the Italian news agency ANSA.

Accidents happen again and again
In May 2021, 14 people lost their lives when a cable car gondola crashed in Stresa on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy. Only a five-year-old boy survived the accident. Last April, there was a cable car accident on Mount Faito near Naples in which four people lost their lives. The cabin closest to the mountain station, which was carrying five people, came loose and plunged into an abyss. Two holidaymakers from England, one from Israel and an Italian employee of the cable car operator were killed in the accident.