Andrew David Kenneth Young, 82, has been identified as the third British citizen to die in the funicular crash that killed 16 people in central Lisbon on Sept. 3, Portuguese authorities and his family said.
Young, from Holyhead on Anglesey, was one of three Britons among the dead; the others were named as Kayleigh Gillian Smith, 36, and her partner William Nelson, 44. The accident, which occurred at 6:05 p.m. local time, left nearly two dozen people injured and prompted a multiagency investigation.
Young’s family described him as a "lifelong transport enthusiast" who spent his retirement visiting heritage railways and tramways around the world and said it gave them comfort that "his final moments were in pursuit of the hobby which gave him so much happiness." He was raised in Auchterarder, Perthshire, and moved to Holyhead in 1980, where he had a long career as a customs officer, relatives said.
Police identified all victims on Friday and confirmed the nationalities included five Portuguese, three Britons, two Canadians, two South Koreans, one American, one French, one Swiss and one Ukrainian. Authorities also clarified that a German father who had earlier been reported dead was alive and receiving treatment in a Lisbon hospital.
The distinctive yellow-and-white Glória funicular, which runs between the Bairro Alto district and Restauradores Square and is used by locals and tourists, derailed as it descended a steep hill and struck the corner of a building near Restauradores Square. Eyewitnesses reported the car careened toward a sharp bend during Lisbon’s evening rush hour.
The Polícia Judiciária and other investigators have not yet determined an exact cause. The Lisbon Firefighters Regiment said a cable appeared to have come loose and may have caused the derailment, but the operator, Carris, cautioned that it was premature to assume the fault lay solely with a cable.
Carris said the funicular had undergone full maintenance checks last year and that a visual inspection had been carried out about nine hours before the crash. Carris CEO Pedro de Brito Bogas told reporters there were six technicians, supervised by three engineers, responsible for the system’s maintenance. He did not provide detail on whether all cables were tested during the recent inspection.
Investigations are under way by the Polícia Judiciária, public prosecutors and government transport experts, and Carris has opened its own internal inquiry. Chief police investigator Nelson Oliveira said a broader preliminary report is expected within 45 days.
The victims included visitors who posted about their first day in Lisbon. Smith had written on social media that she and her partner spent the day enjoying "churches and castles, tiles and trams," posting photos of the city and of the pair together.
President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa visited the crash site to pay respects, and Britain’s Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he was "deeply saddened" by the deaths. A No. 10 spokesman said the prime minister’s thoughts were with the families and those affected and that the U.K. stood "united with Portugal during this difficult time."
Emergency services, police and Carris officials said they would continue assisting victims’ families and cooperating with the ongoing inquiries. Prosecutors and transport experts will examine maintenance records, technical inspections and the funicular’s mechanical components as they seek to establish the sequence of events that led to the derailment.