It was a Sunday the May 23, 2021, one of the first with freedom of movement after pandemic restrictions. On that Sunday the Piedmontese shore of Lake Maggiore seems an ideal destination. The cable car that connects the beach with the summit of Mottarone has been in operation for about a month. Around 12.30, a few meters from the mountain station, the towing cable of the plant breaks: cabin number 3 comes off, collides with one of the pylons and falls 20 meters into the woods.
The victims
14 people die 13 dead instantly. Two children are brought in very serious conditions to the Regina Margherita Hospital in Turin. Five-year-old Mattia Zorloni dies in the evening. His parents, Vittorio Zorloni and Elisabetta Persanini, were also on the cable car. Amit Biran, 30, Tal Peleg, 26, Tom, 2, as well as great-grandparents Barbara Cohen Konisky, 71, and Itshak Cohen, 82, also lost their lives. They are a family of Israeli origin living in Pavia. Only little Eitan Biran is saved, thanks to his father who acts as a shield.
Alessandro Merlo was a 29 year old from Varese who died with his girlfriend Silvia Malnati, 26, who had recently graduated in Economics. They are buried together. Serena Cosentino had been in Verbano for less than two months to work on a project on the presence of microplastics in Lake Maggiore. Her boyfriend Mohammed Reza Shahisavandi of Iranian origin was with her that Sunday. On the plaque also the names of Roberta Pistolato, 40, and her husband, Angelo Vito Gasparro, 45.
Anniversary
On Monday 23 May the stele with the names of the fourteen victims of the disaster. The plaque will have the words “a perennial reminder” in Latin and the names of the missing persons. It will be right where booth number three fell. “When I go up there I always find rosaries, images, signs of piety” said the mayor of Stresa Marcella Severino to Corriere della Sera.
At 11 in the little church of the Madonna della Neve just above the square of the cable car there will be mass. The Municipality has invited all the relatives of the victims. Not all of them will be there. Alessandro Merlo’s mother will be present. On the other hand, the presence of Eitan’s family, the only survivor, 6 years old, is practically excluded.
Eitan
Left alone in the world, the child was entrusted to his paternal aunt who lives in Pavia, but ended up at the center of a dispute with his mother’s family. Grandfather took him to Israel via the Swiss in September, contravening the judges’ instructions and obtaining a kidnapping charge. However, an Israeli court also ruled that the child should return to Italy where he grew up. The return last December. The child now lives with his aunt’s family, but has an external guardian. appointed by the Juvenile Court of Milan.
The investigation
365 days after the disaster, the investigation to ascertain responsibility is still open. From the first days after the massacre it was immediately clear that the cause of the crash was the breaking of the hauling cable, which was broken neatly. The investigation was opened for multiple manslaughter and negligent injuries. The hypothesis of the prosecutor of Verbania is that forks have been deliberately inserted to block the brake on the cabin.
The plant manager Luigi Nerini, the operating manager Enrico Perocchio and the head of service Gabriele Tadini were arrested. However, they were almost immediately released from prison because the judge did not accept the prosecutor’s accusatory thesis. Change the investigating judge. The suspects end up under house arrest and then released.
The first hearing of the trial is set for July 14th. Inspections and investigations go ahead because the appraisals must be filed by 30 June. On 12 May the last reconnaissance of the plant from the arrival station of the Mottarone cable car. There were 60 meetings between the experts who will deliver the report for the evidentiary incident to the investigating judge Annalisa Palomba, the consultants of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the families of the victims and the 14 suspects.
The attention would have focused on 12 of the 114 wires of the torn pulling cable according to reports from La Stampa. They are located 2 to 20 centimeters from the fused head. They would have been necessary monthly checks according to the manufacturer. Apparently there hadn’t been any for 3 years.
– Cable car, the brakes removed for money, the mayor’s anger. Little Eitan breathes on his own
– Mottarone cable car, three stops: “They knew that the cabin was traveling without brakes”
Source: Vanity Fair
