Cavalese Cable Car Disaster

March 9, 1976 - The worst cable car disaster of all time happened on this day. An aerial tram was carrying 43 people as they made their way back from a ski resort in the Italian alps. Two of the tram's steel cables got crossed and somehow one of them was severed. The cabin plunged 700 feet down the mountain and skidded another 300 feet before coming to a stop.

Almost all the passengers were crushed to death but there was a sole survivor, a 14-year-old girl.

22 years later the same cable car system would suffer another tragedy as a United States Marine Corps plane severed a wire that dropped 20 people to their deaths. That accident caused a major backlash against the United States and its military presence in Italy.