Europe's press confounded by ski tragedy

The European press echoed the horror -- and uncertainty -- felt worldwide about the disaster

LONDON, England (CNN) -- As rescue workers on Monday continued the operation of recovering bodies from Saturday's ski disaster, coverage of the tragedy in the European press was punctuated by a giant question mark about its causes.

Austria's Sulzberger Nachrichten noted that the funicular train had been checked regularly. However, the paper said, safety checks were normally undertaken only to the letter of the law and had limitations. "People have a deceptive trust on technology and its ability to be fail-proof," it added.

Under the headline "Death Trap," the Munich-based Sueddeutsche Zeitung raises the question of risk in high-tech transport and safety issues.

"If the cause of the fire can be established, then this will have consequences for safety checks and regulations for all funicular and rail coaches in the mountains." But the paper points out that safety can never be 100 percent guaranteed in the mountains.

REFERENCE Austrian train disaster   •  Graphic: How it happened   •  Survivor's tale   •  Ski champion dead   •  Video: Disaster   •  Video: Recovery   •  Press review   •  Search for clues   •  Accidents in Europe

France's Libération's banner headline reads: "Austria: The mystery of the funicular."

The paper says that among the principal questions confronting officials as they sift for clues is: "Did the fire break out before or after (the funicular) entered the tunnel?"

The newspaper has a timetable of seven previous tunnel-related disasters, dating back to June 16, 1972, when two trains collided under the Vierzy tunnel in Soissons, France, killing 108 and wounding 111.

In the most recent such tragedy, the paper noted, a gigantic conflagration erupted under the Mont-Blanc tunnel between France and Italy on March 24, 1999, killing 39 people. Libération noted: "This catastrophe deals another very hard blow to Austria's winter tourism, which had been flourishing until now."

Britain's The Independent focuses on the "terrible guessing game on the mountain of death" that looms above the idyllic Austrian village of Kaprun.

"As the sun went down on the houses and shops, rings of tiny candles flickered in the dust," the newspaper wrote. "Conditions are perfect for skiing, but Kaprun is empty of tourists now. They have left the town to its grief."

Both the UK Daily Telegraph and The Times run prominent front-page photographs of Sandra Schmitt, Germany's 19-year-old world freestyle skiing champion, who perished with her parents.

The Times said snow boarders celebrating their inaugural outing of the season may have let off firecrackers or used aerosols to wax their ski boards.

Two leading British tabloids -- The Daily Mail and The Mirror -- splashed across their front pages the same harrowing photo of "The Tunnel of Horror" and "The Tomb" in which the tragedy occurred.

The Daily Mail sought to recreate the frenzied feeling of entrapment as the skiers, packed onto the train, found themselves plunged in blackness in the two-mile funicular tunnel.

"When it shuddered to a halt and the doors opened, they were met on one side by a wall of rock, on the other by a steep service stairway. Most were poisoned by fumes before the flames engulfed them."

Austria mourns amid grim salvage operation
November 13, 2000
Recovery work begins in wake of Austrian rail fire
November 12, 2000

Europe's sports region: Kaprun & Zell am See
Republic of Austria

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