Overview

• Investigators said the subterranean cable linking the two Elevador da Glória cars failed at its cabin anchorage, triggering the deadly derailment.
• The brakeman activated pneumatic and manual brakes, yet the descending car continued to accelerate and crashed at an estimated 60 km/h in under 50 seconds.
• Sixteen people were killed and between 21 and 23 were injured, with victims from multiple countries.
• The failed cable had been installed about 337 days earlier within an indicated 600‑day service life, and a visual inspection that morning found no anomaly at the non-visible break point.
• Probes are advancing in parallel, with a GPIAAF preliminary report due in 45 days, a criminal investigation and a Carris audit under way, as the mayor accepts political responsibility but declines to resign and the council also moves to create a victim fund and a technical working group.