'I was meant to be on doomed Naples cable car that killed 2 Brits – one simple choice saved my life'

A cable car driver in southern Italy, who was on duty when the line snapped and sent a - killing four people, including - says one "miracle" move saved his life.

Massimo Amitrano, 60, a long-standing employee of the - now at the centre of a manslaughter probe - was supposed to be driving the very cable car that . But his colleague kindly offered to drive the first of the line's two cars to give Amitrano the chance to enjoy a morning coffee, unknowingly saving his life. The car is believed to have been just 20 seconds away from reaching its destination at the top of the mountain when its main cable snapped in high winds and thick fog, killing three passengers and Amitrano's colleague. Graeme Winn, 65, and 58, from Market Harborough, Leicestershire, died along with an tourist named as Janan Suliman, 25, and the cable car driver Carmine Parlato, 59.

Friends of the British couple said they were "keen travellers" who were "enjoying retirement". They are understood to have visited Italy as part of a motorcyclists' group. Suliman's brother Thaeb Suliman, 23, survived the fall and was rescued two hours after the alarm was raised before being airlifted to hospital where he remains in a critical condition.

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Amitrano only found out about Parlato's death after he was taken to hospital for checks. The two men had clocked in together that morning at the Monte Faito station. Amitrano left his rucksack in the first cabin but Parlato told him to grab his things and take the second car instead, giving Amitrano time to grab a coffee at the bar, the Sunday Times reports.

"I let the mother hold the four year-old child as she descended because she wouldn't have gone without him. I let them down very slowly," he said. "I was the last off because the captain usually doesn't abandon his ship. I felt terrible. Carmine was a dear friend," Amitrano said. "But also because it could have been me in that cabin. Without knowing anything, he saved me. It's divine intervention, how else do you explain it?" He continued: "I really loved Carmine. He was an exquisite person. He had a big heart. Often we would do the long summer shift together."

The cable car, used by hundreds of tourists a day, had reopened on April 10 one week before the crash after a three month scheduled closure. Amitrano insisted thorough checks had been carried out. "We controlled absolutely everything," he said. "The ropeway, motors, pulleys, electronic system and telephone line."

"I would drive [the] cable car hundreds more times," he continued, stressing the vehicles are safe. "Commercial airplanes come down, car crashes happen. Freak accidents are part of life." He said engineers may have to find new security systems to protect the vehicles. "It's not just [the mountain of] Mottarone or Castellammare.

There are many other cable cars," he said. "Our task must be to ensure no other accidents this serious can happen again."

Prosecutors have since closed off the stations, cabins, pylons and broken cable - and launched a multiple manslaughter investigation. A surveillance video reportedly catching the moment the upper cabin of the car slid back and disappeared from view has been seized, local police said.