A cable linking two carriages snapped shortly before Wednesday's funicular crash in Lisbon that killed 16 people, accident inspectors have said in a report. An operator tried to apply emergency brakes but failed to prevent the derailment, investigators added.
The findings were published on Saturday by Portugal's air and rail accident investigations bureau (GPIAAF) into the incident that left at least 20 others injured with five people in a critical condition. A scheduled visual inspection had been carried out on the morning of the accident but the area where the cable broke was “not visible without dismantling” and the rest of the mechanism was functioning properly, the report added.
The carriages of the city’s iconic Glória funicular had travelled no more than six metres when they “suddenly lost the balancing force of the connecting cable”. The vehicle’s brake‑guard immediately “activated the pneumatic brake as well as the manual brake” but the measures “had no effect in reducing the vehicle’s speed”, the GPIAAF said.
According to the initial findings, the Elevador da Glória crashed into a building at a speed of 60km/h (37mph) and the whole incident happened in 50 seconds. The agency said the cable was only 337 days into its expected 600-day operational life and it remains unclear how many passengers were travelling in the carriage and how many were on the street.
Two separate investigations are now under way into the accident: one carried out by the accident investigators’ office and another by the prosecutors’ office. The GPIAAF said the two investigations were entirely independent of each other and it will publish a preliminary report into the accident within 45 days.
Investigators had already announced that 11 foreign nationals were among the fatalities. Three Britons, two South Koreans, two Canadians, one Frenchwoman, one Swiss, one American and one Ukrainian were identified among the victims. The families of a British couple killed, Kayleigh Smith, 36, and William Nelson, 44, paid tribute to them and said they were “heartbroken”.
