Video: 'The First Cavalese Cable Car Disaster | A Short Documentary | Fascinating Horror'

(Monday, March 9, 1976, 5:19 p.m. Central European Time) — A fully loaded aerial cable car plunged more than 600 feet to the ground this afternoon at an Alpine ski resort after a steel support cable snapped, killing 42 people in what officials said was the deadliest cable car accident in history.

The crash occurred as the car was descending from Mount Cermis near the resort town of Cavalese in the Dolomites, about 25 miles northeast of Trento. The vehicle fell approximately 660 feet, striking the mountainside and breaking apart on impact, authorities said.

Rescue officials said a 14-year-old girl, Alessandra Piovesana, survived the fall. She was among 16 children aboard the car and was pulled alive from the wreckage. No other survivors were found.

Preliminary investigations indicated the disaster was caused when the carrier cable overlapped with a support cable near the first pylon, allowing the moving cable to shear through the support line.

Rescue crews worked amid snow and rugged terrain to recover bodies scattered across the slope.

Officials declared a period of mourning as Italy grappled with one of the nation’s worst peacetime transport tragedies.