Cable car disaster in Italy 3

[LittleInch]

Not a huge amount of detail at the moment but a dreadful tragedy and difficult to understand how this could happen. The factor of safety on a cable car cable must be huge as it is so vital.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/23/at-least-eight-dead-in-italian-cable-car-accident

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[davidbeach]

Rode that in June of 2018. Pretty spectacular. It takes two different cable cars to get to the top. Haven’t dug in enough to know which of the two it was.

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[davidbeach]

Sounds like it was the upper section.

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[TugboatEng]

The reporting is strange. In the video the cable appears to be in tact. The cable car either fell off the cable or the mechanism that attached it to the cable failed.

 

[1503-44]

It does look like there is a cable missing.

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[FacEngrPE]

This image shows the cable-way at the Lower terminal, Google Maps Oct 2017.

Picture of car - 2019

The image at the beginning of the video does seem to indicate a missing cable, if you view further two cables are visible, The smaller safety cable is still attached to the car (at least in one direction). It may have stopped the car from falling all the way down this hill. closer inspection of the video indicates these cables may have been installed by the rescue crew to stabilize the car. There appears to be some cable tangled up in the cable follower, all of the parts of the cable follower that are visible appear to be where they should be, so it is not obvious yet what failed.

 

[LittleInch]

These photos make it look like the main cables are still there, but the smaller tow cable has fallen.

That indicates that the cable car fell off the cable. So maybe the tow cable snapped and de railed the car?

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[itsmoked]

Recall that people in the forest "heard a loud hissing sound" which would suggest the cable failed and was rapidly backing out of the ways.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[LittleInch]

Other than self weight there doesn't look to be a whole heap holding the cable car to the wire though?

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[LittleInch]

Some reports now saying the tow cable snapped and the car then didn't apply any brakes (does it have any?) and shot down the hill coming off when it went over the pylon you can see in the photos above.

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[1503-44]

I think its the support cable thats gone. Dont the two thin ones make up the towing loop?

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[LittleInch]

The big cables are still there and the eye witness reports state the towing cable broke and the cable car started hurtling down hill until it came to the tower when it came off and then rolled a few times. Must have been horrible to be in.

If you look at the top photo I posted it is pretty clear the thicker cables which the cars sit on is still there.

This is what is supposed to be there - one thick cable holding the car, a second thinner one pulling it or lowering it up/down the hill and a third higher cable for comms? or power? from bottom to top.

The top photo I posted shows the thinner lower cable dangling, but the main cable still in place.

You would think there would be some sort of cable brake like you get on lift shafts if the cables break or there is some sort of failure. Clearly didn't work.

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[LittleInch]

Apparently the one going down the hill managed to stop using the said brake, but the one going up didn't.

https://apnews.com/article/world-ne...-east-health-93e3487ca9dcae871e84601a80cbd496

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[IRstuff]

Apparently the one going down the hill managed to stop using the said brake, but the one going up didn't.

How's that supposed to work? The cars I've been on are driven by the support cable and everything is roughly balanced.

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[LittleInch]

IR stuff - That's because the cable pulling one up whilst the other went down apparently snapped.

When that happens there is nothing to stop the cable car hurtling down the mountain unless it has some sort of mechanical gripper to grip the main support cable. at least that's my supposition.

This though is a classic cable car system where the main support cable is fixed and doesn't move, the cable car has sets of wheels which go over the cable and the two cars are pulled up / lowered down the mountain by a second cable which is then roughly balanced.

Most gondala style ski lifts and indeed some cable cars are nowadays pulled up by a single cable which moves and the wheels are on the support towers.

This one was built in 1970 I think and works the other way around. If you look closely at the photos above you can see the wheels on the cable car arm which run on the main support cable.

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[MacGyverS2000]

I'm surprised there's not some form of uni-directional (switchable at top/bottom?) wheel or braking system (like in an elevator) that would prevent/reduce backwards movement.

I always thought the main cable moved (never paid close attention), didn't realize it was strictly support.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[LittleInch]

That might work going up but wouldn't work going down....

They usually work on excess speed so I guess the one going down was close to its limit speed whereas the one going up which crashed had a speed reversal and hence possibly wasn't as well adjusted.

I have an idea that they will never know what happened to it now its crashed, but this could have been twice as bad if the other cars system hadn't worked.

I think most cable systems now move and the car is fixed to the cable which eliminates one cable and makes it easier to have more than two cars moving at the same time. I guess there are plusses and minuses to both systems and you make your decision based on which one works for your location, number of people you want to transport etc etc.

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[IRstuff]

Thanks, I'll have to remember to check any gondolas I get on in the future. The gondolas and ski lifts I usually ride have driven support cables, but the high-speed ones do detach from the support cable during loading/unloading, while convenient, does concern me a bit more, since there's way more wear and tear on the cable clamps.

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[FacEngrPE]

Our common language divides us again:
What we have here is

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_tramway[/URL]]An aerial tramway, sky tram, cable car, ropeway or aerial tram is a type of aerial lift which uses one or two stationary ropes for support while a third moving rope provides propulsion.[1][failed verification] With this form of lift, the grip of an aerial tramway cabin is fixed onto the propulsion rope and cannot be decoupled from it during operations.

This is what most ski lifts are

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gondola_lift[/URL]]A gondola lift is a means of cable transport and type of aerial lift which is supported and propelled by cables from above. It consists of a loop of steel wire rope that is strung between two stations, sometimes over intermediate supporting towers. The cable is driven by a bullwheel in a terminal, which is typically connected to an engine or electric motor. They are often considered continuous systems since they feature a haul rope which continuously moves and circulates around two terminal stations.

Some useful technical data is found on Lift World 47-AT Stresa - Alpino
Built by Piemonte Funivie, type 47-AT. This business eventually became part of Agudio Leitner S.p.A. which makes material cableways, but does not advertise support for passenger cableways. This adds to the mix of possible contributing causes, aftermarket support available when the OEM no longer exists, or has moved on to other markets.

 

[waross]

I hope that the designers had methods in place do safely handle any anticipated failure.
I suspect that this accident was initiated by a failure that the designers did not anticipate.
Here is another cable car disaster.
Cable Car failure

Bill
--------------------
Ohm's law
Not just a good idea;
It's the LAW!