11 foreigners killed in Portugal funicular crash

DAILY INSPECTION

The exact cause of the crash is still unknown, but the Portuguese agency responsible for investigating air and rail accidents said it would publish its “first confirmed findings” later on Friday.

A preliminary report will be published “within 45 days”, its director Nelson Oliveira announced.

Speaking alongside Oliveira at a press conference, judicial police chief Luis Neves said the investigation would not rule out any potential causes.

“Nothing is out of the question,” he said. “We have to keep an open mind.”

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

“Something unusual happened that suddenly snapped the cable, and that is what the investigation should focus on,” Carlos Minerio Aires, a former head of Portugal’s engineering regulatory body, told SIC television.

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

“We cannot start from the premise that the problem lies in the cable. That’s what the investigation will determine,” said Pedro Bogas.

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

Maintenance costs remained stable, it added.

According to eyewitnesses, one of the two yellow cars on the funicular, which are connected by a cable in a counterweight system, hurtled down the steep street at full speed, derailed on a bend and smashed into a building.