Cavalese cable car accident (1998)

In the Cavalese cable car accident on February 3, 1998, an American fighter plane severed the cable of the cable car leading from Cavalese to Alpe Cermis . 20 people died when a cabin crashed there .

Starting position

The Cermisbahn runs south of Cavalese across the valley and connects it with Alpe Cermis on the edge of the Lagorai chain . A gondola with 20 passengers was traveling here.

A set with four US combat aircraft of type EA-6B Prowler a squadron of North Carolina flew at low altitude, the Val di Fiemme along. A minimum altitude of 2000 feet (about 600 meters) was required there . A low-flying area in which flights up to 150 meters would have been allowed was not designated. In order to obtain a permit for the training flight through the narrow Dolomite valleys, the crew gave false information to the aviation security authority . The aircraft was also traveling too fast at over 800 km / h (a speed of 250 kt , equivalent to 463 km / h, would have been legal), and the crew disregarded other regulations.

the accident

At 3:13 p.m. local time, the aircraft cut through the so-called wing fold, a joint on the right wing, the suspension cable and the ballast pull cable of the cable car at a height of 110 meters above the ground. The machine was cornering at the time of the collision. The massive structures around the area of the wing fold prevented the suspension cable from separating the wing. The machine was able to continue and end the flight in the so-called emergency.

The downhill gondola was located about 300 meters from the valley station and 40 to 50 meters above the severing point and fell from about 100 meters into the depth.

consequences

All 20 occupants of one of the two cable car cabins, including eight Germans, five Belgians, three Italians, two Poles, an Austrian and a Dutchman, died. The aircraft was damaged, but was able to return to Aviano Air Base .

Based on the NATO statute of 1951, the pilot and his navigator were indicted in an American military tribunal at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune , North Carolina. On March 4, 1999, both were acquitted of the accusation of negligent homicide , despite having fallen below the prescribed minimum flight altitude . A crucial fact for the acquittal was that the cable car had not been marked on the maps of the US military.

However, in a second trial in May 1999, the pilot and navigator were found guilty of document suppression of the destruction of the private video recording that captured the flight . Both were dishonorably discharged from the army. The pilot also received a six-month sentence, of which he served four and a half months. The low sentences resulted in outrage among the Italian public and a strain on diplomatic relations between the US and Italy . There the accident is nicknamed Strage del Cermis (German blood bath or massacre of Cermis ).

After two years of negotiations, compensation amounting to the equivalent of 3.8 million German marks was approved for each of the families affected. That was the statutory maximum and the highest compensation ever paid in Italy.

Every year at the minute of the accident, the church bells are rung in Cavalese.

Similar accidents

As early as 1972, an Italian machine cut the cable of a cable car on the Pordoi Pass . The railway was not yet in operation, so there was only property damage . There was another similar accident in July 1987 at the Lagazuoi cable car at Passo di Falzarego near Cortina d'Ampezzo , when an Italian military jet also cut the pulling rope. There were only a few slightly injured people in the accident, as the cabs had been brought to a standstill by the emergency brakes.

As early as 1976 there was a serious cable car accident at the Cermisbahn when a suspension cable broke.