A British couple who died alongside two others when the cable car they were travelling in plummeted 100ft into an Italian mountainside have been pictured for the first time.
Margaret Elaine Winn, 58, and her husband Graeme Winn, 64, were just 20 seconds away from the top of Monte Faito, which overlooks the bay of Naples, on Thursday afternoon when tragedy struck.
A heartbreaking tribute revealed how the pair had been ‘enjoying their retirement with lots of motorbike tours and holidays’ before the disaster.
The couple had set off up the mountain in one of the cableway’s two cabins, leaving from the station in the historic town of Castellammare di Stabia at 2.40pm.
Six minutes later, with the cabin understood to have nearly reached the safety of the terminal at the top of the 3,700ft peak, it ground to a halt.
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.
The Winns were travelling up the cable car alongside an Israeli brother and sister, and the cabin’s driver, named in Italian media as 59-year-old Carmine Parlato.
The Israeli man, who was incredibly found by rescue teams among the mangled wreckage some two hours after the alarm was first raised, is the only survivor.
British holidaymakers Graeme Winn, 64, (left) and his wife Margaret Elaine Winn, 58, (right) died alongside two others when the cable car they were travelling in plummeted 100ft into an Italian mountainside
A heartbreaking tribute revealed how the pair (pictured together) had been ‘enjoying their retirement with lots of motorbike tours and holidays’ before the disaster
In this photo released by the Italian Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps on Thursday, April 17, 2025, rescuers reach for the smashed gondola of the Mt. Faito cable car near Naples in southern Italy
The couple had set off up the mountain in one of the cableway’s two cabins, leaving from the station in the historic town of Castellammare di Stabia at 2.40pm
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.
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.
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.
Mrs Winn’s social media suggests a love for travel and motorbike riding. She is frequently photographed on her motorcycle
One of the victims has been named as cable car driver Carmine Parlato, 59, a married father-of-one from the Naples area
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.
Friends of Mr and Mrs Winn have shared tributes to the ‘keen travelers and motorcyclists’ on social media following the ‘terrible tragedy’.
Chris Mann wrote: ‘Just heard the tragic news that the couple who died in the Italian cable car crash were Graeme and Elaine Winn.
‘Good friends who were enjoying retirement with lots of motorbike tours and holidays.
‘How incredibly sad.’
The mayor of Castellammare di Stabia said that the cable car had ‘just twenty to twenty-five seconds left’ of its journey when the tragedy struck
The mangled wreckage is seen among dense woodland in an aerial shot of the scene
Mark Kirkman added: ‘Sad news, two of the deceased were friends of ours. Graeme Winn and Elaine Winn were enjoying their retirement together and were keen travellers and motorcyclists.
‘Both came to see our band BEGGAR many times, too. When I needed a motorcycle for our Italian trip, Graeme lent me one of his and we put 3,000 miles on it!’
‘A terrible tragedy and a sad loss to their family. RIP.’
Welland Park Academy in Market Harborough also paid tribute to pair, describing Ms Winn as a ‘much-loved’ and ‘highly respected member of our school’.
A spokesman for the secondary school said: ‘We are deeply saddened to confirm that Elaine Winn, the school business manager at Welland Park Academy, was among those who tragically lost their lives in the recent cable car accident in Naples, Italy. Elaine died alongside her husband while on holiday.
‘Elaine was a much-loved and highly respected member of our school community. Her professionalism, warmth, and unwavering dedication to school life touched the lives of students, staff, and families alike.
‘She gave so much to the school beyond her role, and many students will have fond memories of her from the school trips she supported over the years. The care and kindness she showed to everyone in our community means her loss will be felt deeply by us all.
‘We are currently supporting our staff and preparing to support our students as they return from the Easter break. Plans are also being made to commemorate Elaine’s life in a meaningful way within the school.
Around 16 passengers were evacuated from another cabin at the bottom of the cableway, with footage showing how tourists were removed from the cabin one by one using harnesses
The cable car connects the historic town of Castellammare di Stabia with Monte Faito
The horrific accident on Thursday happened just a week after the site reopened for the season
‘We kindly ask that the privacy of Elaine’s family, and that of our school community, be respected as we come to terms with this loss.’
Prosecutors have now launched a manslaughter probe into Thursday’s disaster, with the reason as to why the two cable cars on the route ground to a halt still unclear.
Officials have said that they still do not know why the traction cable gave way, but suggested that the emergency brake system failed to work.
The lower cabin’s brake system appeared to work and it remained suspended, with the eight tourists and operator inside evacuated by rescuers.
Footage shared on social media showed a survivor being lowered out of the cable car and towards the ground.
The Torre Annunziata public prosecutor’s office confirmed it has opened an investigation into the disaster, though it is unclear who is under investigation.
The scenic cable car has been taking tourists and Neopolitans to the summit of Monte Faito for decades since it first opened in 1952, with the mountain popular for the panoramic views it offers of the bay of Naples and Vesuvius.
Thursday’s tragedy was not the first on the historic cableway. On August 15, 1960, one of the cabins reached the bottom without being able to stop its run.
Rescuers on the site where a cable car carrying tourists south of Naples has crashed after the cable snapped, killing at least four people and injuring one in Castellamare di Stabia, near Naples, Italy
Four people have died and one is seriously injured after a cable car crashed to the ground in Monte Faito
It fell on to the underlying tracks of the Circumvesuviana railway line, killing four people and injuring 31.
The cable car underwent significant maintenance work in the aftermath and the cabins were replaced.
Umberto de Gregorio, the head of the company which owns the cable car, insisted today that it reopened last week ‘with all the required safety conditions’ after three months of maintenance work.
‘What happened today is an unimaginable, unforeseeable tragedy,’ he said. ‘We are devastated, the cable car is a jewel in the crown.
‘We have been testing for three months. The company has done everything it had to in terms of safety and for this reason no one can explain what happened. It will certainly have to be ascertained, but it will take time’.
Describing the series of events that unfolded Thursday, he went on: ‘The towing cable of the cabin that was going up broke.
‘The cabin downstream had no consequences, it just got stuck and all the people were saved.
‘The cabin upstream, however, we believe went at full speed against the pylon and then fell.’
Firefighters near Castellammare di Stabia responding to the tragedy on Monte Faito
Strong winds hit the area at the time sparking speculation that the adverse weather may have caused the accident, but Mr de Gregorio denied this.
‘There is a complex system that blocks the cable car when the wind exceeds the warning level, so it was not that’.
Speaking on the tragic accident, Naples mayor Gaetano Manfredi said: ‘I express deep condolences, on behalf of the Metropolitan City of Naples and myself, for the victims of the tragedy that occurred this afternoon due to the collapse of the Faito cable car cabin.’
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is currently in Washington attending talks with US President Donald Trump, has also offered her condolences.
A statement shared by by the Italian government said: ‘Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is in Washington for a meeting with US President Donald Trump, learned of the tragic accident that occurred today on the Monte Faito cable car and wishes to express, on behalf of the Italian Government and her own, her closeness and deepest condolences to the families of the victims and the injured.’
President Meloni is in contact with the Minister for Civil Protection Nello Musumeci and the Head of the Department Fabio Ciciliano.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said in a statement: ‘We are dealing with an incident in Italy and are in contact with the local authorities. Our thoughts are with those affected.’
Italy has been rocked by cable car tragedies in the past, with 14 people killed when a wire snapped and flung a carriage 65ft to the ground in 2021.
The cable car had been carrying the passengers up a mountain overlooking Lake Maggiore in the western Alps when it dropped 1,000ft from the station.
Disturbing footage of the disaster shows how close the passengers were to safety before the cabin shot down the mountain.
It shows a cable snapping, sending the car and its passengers inside careening back down as they were brutally thrown around the cabin.
In separate video, the carriage can be seen flying off and falling out of view behind the crest of a hill where it crashed, killing 14 of the 15 people on board.
In another gondola disaster, 20 people were killed in the Dolomites when a US airforce pilot crashed into the cables holding a carriage full of holidaymakers.
The 1998 tragedy in Cavalese came 22 years after another in the same town, which saw 43 people killed when their cabin skidded 300 feet and was crushed.
