Bwe blood! The cable car has just stopped on the way up! Again the emergency brake that releases. Several times it goes off on its own. To repair it ? The three people in charge of the ski lift located in Stresa, at the foot of the Italian Alps, exchange a glance. That would mean closing the link for days, even weeks, when it has just reopened after these long months of health crisis. You might as well put the key under the door! But there is a solution. Since this emergency brake is working, you just have to deactivate it. Like that, no more problem.
– What if the towing cable goes loose?
But no. It’s impossible.
They’re going to have lunch together at the top of Mount Mottarone
Sunday 23 May. Eitan watches the cable car coming down the mountain. The 5 year old boy is excited. It will be his turn to get on board! His dad explained to him that once at the top, he could touch the clouds. The cabin looks like a red and white minibus, with large windows to see the landscape well. It is attached to a cable by a large metal arm. Here she stops in front of the boarding platform. Eitan feels his daddy’s hand resting on his shoulder, to contain his impatience.
– Hold on, Eitan. It must stabilize!
The doors open. The 5 year old child rushes inside. He is a little brown man, with very expressive black eyes. For this Sunday family stroll, he is surrounded by all those he loves. His mother, his father, his little brother Tom, and even his great-grandparents! Barbara and Yitzhak arrived from Tel Aviv four days ago, fleeing bombs in Israel. Here, at least, they are safe. And this is the opportunity to spend some time with their great-grandchildren.
Amit, Eitan’s father, helps his wife to maneuver the stroller where their younger child is installed. He is an intern in medicine in a clinic in Pavia. She is a psychologist, on a professional break while the children are growing up. They live in a lovely house in Fabia, Lombardy. This Sunday, they will all have lunch together at the top of Mount Mottarone. Happiness !
The cabin rushes forward. Normally, it can accommodate up to 35 people, but to respect social distancing measures, there are only 15 inside. With his nose glued to the glass, Eitan does not miss a beat of the show.
The ascent lasts 20 minutes. Tourist brochures refer to “the most beautiful balcony in the world”. It’s not oversold. In this magnificent weather, the view allows you to admire the seven lakes, the Monte Rosa massif, and the entire Po Valley.
The cabin reaches the middle station of Alpino, with its village and rivers where tourists bathe in summer. In the distance, the bungalows of the Sette Camini campsite sparkle in the sun. At the end of the hamlet, a beautiful house with yellow ocher walls dominates the valley. The show is magical. The sides of the mountain are covered with fir and larch trees. Eitan stands on tiptoe to see it all. He feels like he’s flying! His mom takes the opportunity to take some pictures. The cabin leaves. A little more patience before reaching the summit, at an altitude of 1,500 meters. It is 12:02 p.m.
The cabin goes backwards, at more than 120 km / h!
Paolo Pobitiati, the owner of the yellow ocher house, is working in his garden when suddenly he hears a huge explosion in the valley. Then a sort of strange roar. And silence. What was that ?
Alerted by the noise, several villagers leave their homes. At the same time, an old man leaning on a cane emerges from the wood. He trembles, cries out, stumbles. Looks like a fool. He screams in a voice distorted by terror:
– The cable car has fallen! There are bodies everywhere!
For a few seconds, it’s astonishment. Then we run to call for help. Hikers, witnesses of the tragedy, describe an abominable scene. The cabin pull cable broke a few meters from the summit. The huge rope snapped, whistling the air with a mournful hiss. Suspended from the only emergency cable, the cabin suffered a terrible shock, then it took off again, at full speed, hurtling down the slope at over 120 km / h! The first passage of the pylon catapulted it into the air, 25 meters high. Then it crashed to the ground with incredible violence, before bouncing, rolling and breaking up on the side of the mountain. The windows were shattered, the doors tore off. Several occupants were ejected. The cabin ended its race against a row of evergreens, exploding in shock.
Throughout the valley, you can hear the howl of sirens. Firefighters, police officers and rescuers flock to the scene. The scene of the tragedy is only accessible by hiking trails, and every minute counts to hope to find survivors.
Alas, the first arrivals discover a real carnage. Some bodies are shredded. Others are crushed inside the cabin. Others were thrown tens of meters from the point of impact. But in this setting of the apocalypse, a miracle took place: we hear tears. Two children are alive! Little Eitan and another boy of the same age are evacuated by helicopter to the Regina Margherita hospital in Turin.
Eitan has multiple fractures to his legs, arms, crushed chest and trauma
Tom. As there are not enough coffins, we lay him down next to his mother. At 6.30 p.m., a sinister funeral procession descends the 13 victims to the Stresa morgue.
A smashed stroller, a woman’s scarf hanging from a branch …
The next day in Alpino, the day dawns on an unreal setting. A fine rain falls on the carcass of the cable car, crushed at the foot of a huge fir tree. Death has passed here, sowing scraps of life behind it. A smashed black stroller, twisted handles. A woman’s scarf hanging from a branch. A red K-way impaled on a piece of junk. Further down the slope, little colored pencils escaped from a shredded case. Twenty-four hours after the accident, everything seems to have frozen. Dead silence reigns over the valley. A fine mist envelops the scene like a shroud.
All of Italy is in mourning. During a press conference, the Minister of Transport, Enrico Giovannini, promises to shed light on the tragedy. Strangely, the cabin emergency brake did not activate. It’s incomprehensible !
The experts are hard at work. On May 26, just four days after the tragedy, three people were arrested. Luigi Nerini, the manager of the company “Ferrovie del Mottarone” which manages the cable car. Gabriele Tadini, the installation manager. And Enrico Perocchio, the operational manager of the cable car. All are accused of having deliberately deactivated the emergency braking system.
Among the rubble, we found a metal part in the shape of a fork that prevented it from working! Deliberate sabotage. The cable car has been running without this protection since it reopened on April 26!
For fear of missing their season, these men played Russian roulette with the lives of their customers. They have since recognized the facts, and say they are appalled by the consequences of their act. They would never have imagined that the cable could give way! They will be prosecuted for manslaughter, and “voluntary removal of security precautions.” This second charge alone puts them at risk of an additional 10 years in prison.
Across the country, it is now astonishment, as Olimpia Bossi, the prosecutor in charge of the investigation, explains:
– Very few people could have imagined such a tragedy, laments the magistrate. In the minds of people, a cable car is synonymous with vacation! Who could have guessed that a simple Sunday outing would turn into a nightmare?
His first words after coming out of the coma: “Where’s mom?” “
The only light in the darkness, Eitan has woken up today. The little boy is no longer intubated, although his condition remains clinically serious. He owes his life to his father, who had the reflex to hug him when the cable broke. A final gesture of love.
When the little boy opened his eyes in the hospital, his Aunt Aya was at his bedside (see box). The first words he stammered broke all hearts:
– Where is Mom ?
No one has yet dared to tell him that he has lost all his family, parents, little brother, great-grandparents. A psychiatrist will explain it to him in a few days when he will be able to hear it. But the time has not yet come. Seeing the doctors around his bed, he breathed, his eyes full of fear:
– Leave me alone, I’m afraid!
The story of Eitan, the only survivor of the cable car, turns Italy upside down. A fundraising in his favor has already raised 70,000 euros. It’s a lot. But it will be very little to face existence alone.
An investigation by Axelle Wineux
