Cermis, near the Italian ski resort of Cavalese in the Dolomites, 40 km (25 mi) north-east of Trento.

[1] The only survivor was a 14-year-old Milanese girl, Alessandra Piovesana, who was on a school trip and was with two friends when the crash happened.

She testified in the succeeding trials and later worked as a journalist for the science magazine Airone, before her death from illness in 2009.

Then the cabin jerked backwards, and I felt lifted, then pulled in the gin by the legs, I couldn't breathe.

A contributing factor that caused the crossing of cables was likely an increased speed of the cabin when going over a pylon (possibly over 10 m/s).

[1] In an attempt to reduce the journey time from 6 and a half to 5 and a half minutes and combat the long queues of skiers waiting for the lift,[1] many regulations given by the cable car manufacturer were broken, including manual alterations to a programme that regulates the speed of cabins near pylons.

The safety system was triggered on this occasion, and the cabin with 43 people on board halted suddenly shortly after passing the pylon, swinging abruptly according to several witnesses.

[1] When the cabin halted abruptly as a result of engagement of the safety system, the operator did not know what to do as he was not trained for this situation.

After a telephone conversation, the operator was instructed by his colleague, Aldo Gianmoena,[1] to disable the automatic stop safety system that had engaged due to the cables crossing.

The investigation found this key not only freely accessible to all operators, but it showed signs of significant wear as a result of its frequent use.)

Disabling the safety stop system caused the engine to keep on pulling the cabin even though the cables were crossed.

[1] Approximately 80–90 seconds after the cabin was restarted without the safety system, the support cable gave way.

This delay was likely caused by the confusion of the inexperienced operator, Carlo Schweizer, who reported that he had to hide under the operational unit as the top part of the snapped cable sprang backwards due to tension, hitting the control room and breaking windows.

[1] The trials were lengthy as the lift officials denied the phone call between Carlo Schweizer and Aldo Gianmoena.