Enceng Anwar Solihin noticed it first: the bridge began swaying from side to side beneath his feet.
It was the afternoon of Sunday, August 30, in Margacinta, Pangandaran, West Java, and dozens of residents were crossing the newly inaugurated Pongpet together to celebrate. Solihin, the village chief, managed to ask regent Citra Pitriyami: “Aren’t you afraid?” Seconds later, a cable on the left side came loose from its main anchorage, and the structure plunged about 20 meters with nearly 50 people on it.
Public works chief Ling Ling Nugraha Senjaya suffered scrapes among those lightly injured. Brigadier General Donny Pramono of the Indonesian army, which built the bridge, clarified that there was no total collapse, but rather a cable failure caused by excess weight: only three people were allowed to cross at a time, but the enthusiasm following the inauguration meant that no one respected the limit. The bridge, built over a 1992 original version and used daily to get to school or the hospital, is now closed while investigators determine the actual strength of its anchorage system.