Lisbon funicular cable snapped before deadly crash that killed 16 people: Inspectors

A cable linking two cabins disconnected shortly before the funicular crash that killed 16 people in Lisbon this week, hours after the cable had passed a visual check, accident inspectors said Saturday.

The information came in a note on Wednesday’s accident published by Portugal’s air and rail accident investigations bureau (GPIAAF).

“According to the evidence observed so far, the scheduled maintenance plan was up to date, and a scheduled visual inspection had been conducted on the morning of the accident, which detected no anomalies in the vehicles’ cable or braking systems,” said the agency note.

But it had not been possible to visually inspect the condition of the section of the cable where it separated from the vehicle before the crash, it added.

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According to the investigators’ initial findings, the funicular crashed at a speed of 60 kilometres (37 miles) an hour. The whole incident happened in just 50 seconds, they added.

Investigators had already announced that 11 foreign nationals were among the 16 people killed in Wednesday’s crash.

Three Britons, two South Koreans, two Canadians, one Frenchwoman, one Swiss, one American and one Ukrainian were identified among the victims.

In all, about 20 people were injured, including at least 11 foreigners, the emergency services have said.

The Portuguese victims included four members of staff from the same social care institution, whose offices are situated at the top of the steep side-road serviced by the funicular.

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Two investigations

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 stressed in its note that the two investigations were entirely independent of each other.

It will publish a preliminary report into the accident within 45 days, it added.

Local media speculation about the cause of the crash had already mentioned ruptured high-tension cables and maintenance work overseen by Lisbon’s public transport operator Carris.

The head of Carris, Pedro Bogas, has repeatedly defended the company’s equipment maintenance policy, insisting that procedures had been “scrupulously followed”.

Portuguese media have published the report of the daily inspection conducted on the morning of the tragedy, which indicated the operating system was running smoothly.

According to the weekly publication Expresso, the number of passengers using the three funiculars operated by Carris in Lisbon jumped by 53 percent between 2022 and 2024, to 1.5 million passengers last year.