After the cable car accident on the weekend on Lake Maggiore, there were three arrests on Wednesday night.
The public prosecutor explains the background.
The news ticker.
14 people were killed in a cable car crash on Sunday at Lake Maggiore in Italy *.
On Wednesday, three suspects were arrested who are alleged to have knowingly manipulated the emergency brake of the cable car
(see original report from May 26th).
Among other things, the question of why the cable of the cable car broke in the end (
see update from May 26th, 8.30 p.m.
)
remains open.
The suspects are said to have already made a confession
(see update from May 26, 11:05 a.m.).
Update from May 27, 3:15 p.m.:
14 people died in the tragic cable car accident in Italy, a 5-year-old boy is still in a clinic with serious injuries.
According to the Verbania public prosecutor's office, the three men arrested in northern Italy face “very high” penalties if they are found guilty.
There is also a risk of fleeing, according to the arrest warrant against the three, from which the Italian media
quoted
on Thursday
.
A "thoughtless behavior" led to the death of 14 people and serious injuries to a five-year-old, it said
. The head of the cable car company and two other senior employees were arrested on Wednesday night. The Carabinieri commander Luca Geminale said on Thursday, according to the Ansa news agency, that the cable car's data recorder, the so-called "black box", had been secured. It is a device that records all technical aspects such as speed, movement and swaying of the gondola.
While little Eitan continued to fight for his life in a clinic in Italy, his family was buried in Israel, his homeland.
The couple Amit (30) and Tal (26) and their two-year-old son Tom were buried in a cemetery near Sichron Jaakov in the north of the country, the Israeli news website Walla reported on Thursday. Numerous funeral wreaths lay on the graves.
The coffins of the five victims were brought to Israel on Wednesday. Five-year-old boy Eitan, who lost parents and brother, was the only survivor of the accident, which left 14 people dead. According to media reports, the family man had studied medicine in Pavia south of Milan for several years. The funeral of Tal's grandparents is planned for Friday.
Cable car accident in Italy: the emergency brake was manipulated - "The weather is nice, the season begins"
Update from May 27, 11:25 a.m.:
14 people were fatally wounded in the crash of a cable car in Italy, on Wednesday a tragic turn in the accident had been indicated.
The fatal cable car accident on Lake Maggiore was apparently caused by the deliberate shutdown of a safety system.
As the Italian police announced on Wednesday, three high-ranking representatives of the cable car operating company were arrested, who are said to be responsible for the deliberate shutdown of the emergency braking system.
According to media reports, the braking device had already been out of order on April 26, the day the cable car operations resumed, due to a technical problem.
As reported by Italian media, the three suspects are said to have already made confessions.
The shutdown was carried out with the conviction that "the cable would never tear".
As the Italian broadcaster RAI 3 claims to have learned in an interview with an investigator, the owner is said to have taken the risk.
“The owner said, okay, it's a problem.
But not as serious, ”as
Focus
reports, citing the broadcaster.
“The weather is nice, the season is starting, but we're opening anyway.
It won't be that bad.
If the bracket is in, we don't have the problem.
During the interrogation, the owner said he knew about the problem.
He probably underestimated the problem. "
Cable car accident in Italy: has the cable not been changed for 23 years?
Update from May 26th, 8:30 p.m.:
There are still many unresolved questions about the cable car tragedy in Italy. It is now certain that the emergency braking system was overridden by a fork (see update from 3:45 p.m.). However, the question of how the cable of the cabs could break is still open. The operators of the cable car company apparently relied on this when they switched off the emergency braking system. According to the Italian daily
La Stampa
, the cable has not been changed for 23 years. The investigators therefore fear on the one hand neglect and on the other hand wear and tear from moisture over years. The public prosecutor's office in Verbania tries to shed further light on the matter with its investigation.
Arrests after cable car accident in Italy: emergency brake apparently turned off on purpose
Update from May 26, 3:45 p.m.:
After the tragic accident on Lake Maggiore, there were three arrests of high-ranking representatives of the cable car operating company on Wednesday.
You should be responsible for the deliberate shutdown of the emergency braking system.
The suspects have made a confession
(see update from May 26, 1105 a.m.)
.
According to information from Italian news agencies, Carabinieri representative Cicognani explained the reasons for the momentous disconnection of the brake system to the radio station Radiotre. “There was a malfunction on the cable car, the transport team did not solve the problem or only partially solved it,” says Cicognani. "In order not to interrupt the connection, they decided to leave the 'fork' that prevents the emergency brake from being applied."
Company boss Luigi Nerini, cable car director Gabriele Tadini and cable car operations manager Enrico Perocchio admitted, according to Cicognanis, that the emergency brake had been switched off on purpose.
The responsible prosecutor Olimpia Bossi said at a press conference that it was an "absolutely deliberate" decision to keep the cable car running.
The fork to override the emergency brake was certainly not used for the first time on Sunday.
Bossi said, according to Italian media, the accused had known that the emergency brake had been switched off since April 26, the day the cable car operations resumed.
The shutdown was decided with the conviction "that the cable would never tear".
Cable car accident on Lake Maggiore: the only survivor is said to wake up from the artificial coma
Update from May 26, 12:45 p.m.:
Even on the third day after the cable car crash on Lake Maggiore, Italy continues to look with concern at the five-year-old boy, who was the only one of 15 inmates to survive the accident on Whitsunday.
On Wednesday morning, the treating doctors probably removed the five-year-old's breathing tube, after which the boy is said to have briefly regained consciousness.
But he was still under the influence of the medication, reports the dpa with reference to a doctor.
"His aunt and a psychologist were with him."
In the next few hours, the boy from Israel, who lost his parents and brother in the crash, should be able to wake up from the artificial coma.
Together with another child, the five-year-old was the only one who survived the crash.
Both were flown by rescue helicopter to a clinic in Turin, where the other child succumbed to his injuries that evening.
Italy: Cable car accident on Lake Maggiore - suspects with first confessions
Update from May 26, 11:05 a.m.:
According to media reports, the suspects have already made a confession on Wednesday morning.
"They confessed that they had manipulated the emergency brake," an investigator from the Italian TV broadcaster Rai3 is quoted as saying.
Cable car accident on Lake Maggiore: cause found - "That was known for a month and a half"
Update from May 26th, 11.00 am:
As the Italian
portal Corriere Della Sera
reports, the three arrested are said to be the owner of the cable car operator "Ferrovie del Mottarone", as well as the director and the operational manager of the service. You should have known about the emergency brake on the gondola.
Opposite
bild.de
confirmed Carabinieri commander Alberto Cicognani that should be prevented by the suspension of another emergency occurring problem. “The braking system had been having problems for a month and a half. The cabin sometimes braked between the pylons, then people had to climb onto the pylons manually and trigger the system manually, ”confirms Cicognani. "If the red bracket (a device that overrides the emergency brake,
editor's note
) was active, then the problem of the intermediate
braking
was solved. That had been known for a month and a half. "
The operators have even hired a company to solve the problem.
However, the repairs were never carried out.
According to the current state of investigations, it is likely that a long-term shutdown due to the work should be prevented.
Cable car accident on Lake Maggiore: three arrests in Italy - the emergency brake was probably manipulated
Original message from May 26th:
Stresa - As a result of the cable car accident that occurred on the weekend on Lake Maggiore and in which 14 people were killed, there were probably three arrests in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday.
As reported by the Italian daily
La Stampa
with reference to the public prosecutor, the arrested men are said to be the head of the operating company and two engineers who are said to have worked on the cable car.
Lake Maggiore (Italy): Public prosecutor reports three arrests after the cable car accident
According to the senior public prosecutor Olimpia Bossi, the analysis of the images revealed that the emergency brake, which was supposed to stop the cable car automatically if the cable ruptured, had been manipulated.
Even if the exact circumstances still have to be investigated, the public prosecutor's office assumes that the manipulation was carried out in order to avoid a lengthy repair of the nacelle.
"The system showed deficiencies and should have been remedied with a radical intervention and that would have meant a longer, if not very long, closure," the
Süddeutsche Zeitung
quoted
public prosecutor Bossi.
In order to avoid the economic damage that a closure would have brought with it, the gondola was then tampered with.
Lake Maggiore: To prevent lengthy repairs?
Cable car emergency brake was apparently manipulated
For this a kind of fork was attached to the brake mechanism of the gondola, which overruled it.
According to the reports, those responsible had been aware of the problem since the end of April.
Since the reopening of the cable car operations after the forced break in Italy caused by the corona pandemic, the gondola is said to have run without an emergency brake system.
Like the entire tourism industry, the cable car operation also suffered from a lack of income from the pandemic.
When the cable of the gondola broke on Sunday, the gondola slid unchecked towards the valley and hit a tree at high speed.
14 of the 15 inmates were killed.
A five year old boy is the only survivor.
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