TITLE: ITALY: CABLE CAR DISASTER INVOLVING U.S. WARPLANE (EA-6B SURVEILLANCE AIRCRAFT)

Record ID: 501140

  • Title: TITLE: ITALY: CABLE CAR DISASTER INVOLVING U.S. WARPLANE (EA-6B SURVEILLANCE AIRCRAFT)
  • Date: 3rd February 1998
  • Summary: (GRAPHIC)/RTV SCU GRAPHIC OF NORTHERN ITALY
  • Embargoed: 18th February 1998 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CAVALESE, AVIANO, ITALY
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVABULT39FY2AGNC3919Q829LIAT
  • Story Text: Twenty people were killed on Tuesday when a cable car crashed to the ground after a U.S.warplane hit cable lines in northern Italy, fire fighters said.Firefighters had earlier said around 15 people were believed to have been killed.

    In Washington, a Marine Corps official said one of its EA-6B warplanes, a 4-seater surveillance plane equipped with tactical jamming systems, apparently hit a cable supporting a cablecar.

    The victims of the crash on Tuesday (February 3) were believed to be holidaymakers on their way from the resort of Cermis to the town of Cavalese, 50 km (30 miles) north of Trento in the middle of the Italian Dolomites.

    Italian state television RAI reported that all the victims were adults and believed to be mostly Germans.

    Rescuers said the dead were probably all skiers.

    A spokesman for the carabinieri paramilitary police in Cavalese said a second cabin was left dangling from the cable car lines after the U.S.surveillance plane hit the cables.

    He had no details of how many people had been travelling in the second car, but said it was "only a few".

    All the passengers in the other car, which was believed to have dropped about 200 metres (650 feet) on to the mountainside, were presumed dead, he added.

    Italian television pictures showed the bright yellow cable car crumpled in the snow in the wooded valley.There were pools of blood clearly etched in the snow.

    Alpine rescue teams, 20 military police officers and firefighters supported by helicopters located the victims and were preparing to recover the bodies, witnesses said.

    The area is near the Italian border with Austria and Switzerland and is popular with foreign skiers.The resort forms part of the Valle di Fiemme, which was the site of a World Cup cross skiing event in December.

    The Cermis cable car line was the scene of the world's worst cable-car disaster in March 1976 when cables snapped, sending 42 people to their deaths.

    In July 1987, a light aircraft sheared the cables and left 24 people suspended from one of the cars.No one died in that accident.

    A spokesman at the U.S.military base in Aviano, in northeast Italy, said the plane later made an emergency landing at Aviano.

    He said the plane had been assigned to the NATO-led SFOR stabilisation force in Bosnia but had been conducting a training exercise unconnected with the mission.

    Italian state television said the part of the plane's tail fin was cut off when it hit the cable.
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