An investigation into the Lisbon funicular crash will publish its first report on Monday, October 20th, on the causes of the derailment, which killed 16 people in early September. The accident involved the 19th-century Glória tramway that careered off the rails and crashed into a building in the centre of the Portuguese capital.
Portugal’s air and rail accident investigations bureau, GPIAAF, had previously found that a cable linking two cabins disconnected shortly before the September 3 crash, in a note published three days after the tragedy.
GPIAAF is set to unveil its preliminary report on the accident’s causes by the end of October 20th, with a final report, set to come with safety recommendations going forward, scheduled in the next year.
According to the investigators’ initial findings, the funicular was going at a speed of 60 kilometres (37 miles) an hour before it crashed. The whole incident happened in just 50 seconds, they added.
Of the 16 victims, eleven were foreign nationals, with three UK citizens, two South Koreans, two Canadians, one Frenchwoman, one Swiss, one American, and one Ukrainian identified among the dead. The Portuguese victims included four members of staff from the same social care institution, whose offices sit at the top of the sheer side road serviced by the funicular.
