Man reveals 'miracle' gesture that stopped him driving cable car (2025)

An employee who was meant to be driving the cable car that plunged 100ft into an Italian mountainside and killed four tourists has revealed the 'miracle' moment that saved his life.

A group of holidaymakers, which included a British couple, were travelling up Monte Faito, which overlooks the bay of Naples, on Thursday, when the traction cable snapped.

The carriage and those in it wereplummeted nearly 100ft into the tree-covered ravine below, killing all but one on board.

Brits Graeme Winn, 65, and Elaine Winn, 58, were killed along with an Israeli tourist identified as Janan Suliman, 25, and driver Carmine Parlato, 59.

Massimo Amitrano, 60, who has worked for the Funivia del Monte Faito for over two decades, had been scheduled to drive the cable car.

But in a twist of fate, colleague Parlato insisted he drive the first of the line's two cars so that he could enjoy a morning coffee break.

This meant that the cabin Amitrano had been operating was near the bottom of the valley at the time of the horrific crash.Massimo Amitrano, 60,

The safety break of the cable car came into action, stopping the cabin and allowing him to bring the nine passengers onboard the vehicle to safety.

Amitrano only learned of Parlato's tragic fate after he was taken to hospital for checks.

'I felt terrible — Carmine was a dear friend,' Amitrano said in a television interview.

'But also because it could have been me in that cabin. Without knowing anything, he saved me. It's divine intervention, how else do you explain it?'.

'He saved my life'.

The cable car driver described his colleague as an 'exquisite person' who had a 'big heart'.

Details have emerged of the horrifying final moments of the tourists and driver who died on Thursday.

The group had set off up the mountain in one of the cableway's two cabins, leaving from the station in the historic town of Castellamare di Stabia at 2.40pm.

Six minutes later, with the cabin understood to have been just 20 seconds away from reaching the safety of the terminal at the top of the 3,700ft peak, it ground to a halt.

Officials have said that the emergency braking system that was meant to hold it in place appears to have failed, meaning the cabin would have started sliding back down the wire.

It was then that the traction cable snapped, sending the carriage and those in it swinging into a nearby pylon 'at full speed', according to the boss of the firm that runs the cable car.

The cabin then plummeted nearly 100ft into the tree-covered ravine below, with its metal walls crumpled by thick branches as it split into pieces.

Parts of it became lodged in the tree canopy while other bits of debris rolled down the slope, with the people inside thrown across the forest, Italian media reports.

All but one of those on board lost their lives, with the Israeli man incredibly found by rescue teams among the mangled wreckage, along with the body of his partner and the three other passengers, some two hours after the alarm was first raised.

The mayor of Castellammare di Stabia, Luigi Vicinanza, said that the cable car had 'just twenty to twenty-five seconds left' of its journey when the tragedy struck.

At the same time as disaster was unfolding at the top of the mountain, the cable car which had almost reached the station at the bottom of the mountain also ground to a halt.

On board the downhill cabin was a total of 16 people - a German family-of-five, two tourists and some exchange students - each of whom was safely lowered in a harness from the suspended carriage by rescue teams.

But there was no word from the cabin near the top of the route, with thick fog and black clouds obscuring visibility and desperate attempts to radio the driver for updates proving unsuccessful.

'We can't see them. And we can't even contact Parlato by radio. He's not answering us,' one of the workers from the cable car station reportedly said on the walkie talkie.

Helicopters were sent out to scour the scene, with aerial pictures soon showing that the cabin was no longer suspended and had fallen into the woodland below.

The difficult terrain and adverse weather conditions, including high winds and fog which obscured visibility, meant it took emergency services some two hours to get to the wreckage and discover what had happened to the cabin and those on board.

'There's someone breathing,' one of the rescuers combing the scene is said to have shouted as they came across the sole survivor.

The man was seriously injured, suffering multiple bone fractures, and was airlifted to hospital in Naples where he remains in a 'critical but stable' condition, according to an update on Friday morning.

The patient is 'intubated for airway protection and ventilatory support' and 'currently mechanically ventilated under deep sedation,' with doctors adding that his prognosis remains guarded.

Prosecutors have now launched a manslaughter probe into yesterday's disaster, with the reason as to why the two cable cars on the route ground to a halt still unclear.