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Subscribe to RSSPassengers on an amusement park attraction in California were trapped 300 feet in the air for more than three hours when the ride they were on malfunctioned. NBC's Diana Alvear reports.
Updated at 7:59 a.m. ET: Nearly two dozen riders were safely returned to the ground Wednesday night after having been stranded hundreds of feet in the air for more than three hours on a ride at Knotts Berry Farm.
The Knotts Berry Farm Wind Seeker stopped working around 4 p.m. when the ride's "safety security system activated," causing it to come to a halt, park officials said. Twenty riders were stranded about 300 feet in the air near the top of the ride, according to Jennifer Blazey, spokeswoman for the park.
By 7:30 p.m., the ride had been manually lowered about half way to the ground. At 7:40 p.m., the group -- which appeared to range in age from teenage to adult -- walked off the swings.
Read the original story on NBCLosAngeles.com
The Buena Park ride also became stuck on Sept. 7. That time, it took three hours for maintenance crews to manually lower the ride.
"Safety is Knott’s number one priority and we are committed to the protection of all our guests. Each of our rides is inspected, check-listed and properly maintained daily. Knott’s will continue to consistently monitor and inspect the rides and operation thereof," the park said in a statement relreased Wednesday night.
"The attraction will remain closed while Knott’s Berry further investigates the cause of the incident."
The ride has 32 two-person gondolas that go 301 feet in the air then swing riders for a minute at a 45-degree angle at eight rotations per minute, according to Knott's website.
No injuries were reported, officials said.
Knotts Berry Farm used its own maintenance crew to handle the malfunction.
Orange County Fire Authority firefighters were not called to respond to the malfunctioning ride, OCFA Capt. Marc Stone said.
Rod Veal / AP
Riders on the Wind Seeker ride at Knott's Berry Farm were stuck a few hundred feet off the ground on Wednesday.
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Leave a Comment:
If I didn't have to pee.....this sounds kinda fun.
Several I'm sure peed in their seats.
That is what came to my mind first---it must have been very uncomfortable.
Use your imagination. There could be worse problems. Stuck in the seats for 3 hrs.----most probably passed out.
What is it called? "Amusement High Ride Altitude Phobia"? A new Phobia.
Let's all hope the people who were rescued on from this malfunction are ok, calmed down, and safe. It must have been horrible.
300 feet in the air, is comparable to being equal level with a 30-Story Building---
Sounds like some off the airlines (having to wait on the tarmac) for 7 hrs..
Beats the hell out of falling from 300 feet.
Do you all think that they should sue? Yes or No?
Newswinner, no they shouldn't sue. This ride obviously has some flaws as the one at Carowinds( near Charlotte,NC ) has also gotten stuck at the top and had to be lowered manually and it just opened this year.
Sue? Naw. They should have been charged for the extra long ride.
I used to live near Knott's Berry Farm... old friends said there were dozens of helicopters and quite the commotion.
The ride should not even used for the public if it's not 100%. If they know the ride is junk why use it? If they do and this keeps happening, I'm sure people will just go to Magic Mountain or Disneyland.
They probably all got a very nice Knotts gift basket and a return free ticket to the park for their family and they have a cool story to tell. No big deal.
Should they sue? Stuck for three and a half hours (missing out on many other rides and attractions), unable to use rest room or eat, the trauma (for some) being up in the air 300 feet; and the fact Knotts' didn't call the fire dept. - if they would have been able to help. It's not a great situation but at least there were no small children. I would hope to have my cell phone on me to make some calls, play a few games, send a few texts (i.e., "I'm high right now, what's up with you?"). Hopefully, Knotts' will appropriately compensate them with future passes and lots of jelly and syrups! Amusement parks like this are too expensive to be stuck for hours in the air.
The folks that got stuck at Carowinds in NC were stuck for 3 hours on a hot Saturday in July during the hottest part of the day. They were all OK when they finally got off the ride, but it must have been miserable stuck there in the heat.
Great.... says that the park used it's own maintenance personnel... wow... the feel of confidence knowing that a few 16 year olds with acne were manually lowering the ride...
What did Knot's do to compensate the poor riders, give them extra time on the ride?
No, they gave them each $6, 000,000.00
Too bad for you.
I think 3 hrs would be good enough..LOL
Usually a free return ticket to the park for the family. Stuff happens, having the story to tell your kids and grandkids would be good enough.
If their own crew couldn't get them down faster than 3 hours, they should have had to call for rescue personnel or face a legal action. Three hours is a long time if you aren't planing on being held that long without drinks and a bathroom available. I hope someone dropped a deuce in the seat to show their displeasure.
Your comment wasted 8 seconds of my time and gave me a bowel movement. Can I call some lawyers?
And how do you propose rescue crews would have gotten them down sooner? One by one in very risky individual rescues?
Let's see, they were 300 feet in the air, sitting in individually suspended, swinging seats. NO ladder is that high, helicopter is out due to the rotor wash, so tell us, how were these "rescue" crews going to accomplish this? The only SAFE option was to repair the ride and use it's mechanism and hydraulics to lower the seats. Why don't you stop looking for fault and instead be glad they got everyone down without incident.
Grappling hook and some rope... ? That should do it.
(but seriously....I have no idea)
This country is way to sue happy. No doubt they will get some schmuck who says they were traumitized and can never get on another ride so they must be compensated financially. BS.
Some compensation would probaby be in the best interest of the company though. Seasons tickets or something of the sort. Their admission refunded, free food. Three hours is a lot of time when you pay $51 to get in and its only open for 12 hrs. It would certainly turn bad publicity into some good publicity and easy free positive nationwide advertising.
But any court that awards any sum of $$ to any one who might sue ought to have the word KANGAROO in its name.
Their own crew had practice this happened 9/6/2012 so practice makes perfect.
Mike, there is NO way to get them down fast when they are stuck 300 feet in the air. Carowinds, in North Carolina, has the same ride and it too has gotten stuck at the top. They were on it a little over 2 hours until they could get them low enough to get them off with cherry pickers.
Tell them to jump on to the cushy concrete below?
Wow, has that place changed since 1974 !!! ... I enjoyed panning for gold better than taking an innocent safe choo choo ride :+)
What if you had to do more than just pee?
No one was stopping them.
I know, discussing. but that is why new born have dippers.
if we must use very NAUGHTY words, just in-case they have to pee and poop. they shall be change.
(naughty=unacceptable behavior words) then again. it's a risk. if one was stuck on a stupid airplane on the ground and the potty(potties) was not working., would the same freaks sue the stupid airlines?
Santo-Nino. Must be the 4th Columbus ship that got lost in the voyage.
Where did newborns and diapers come into the picture?
In an aircraft. if it is on the tarmac for more then 2 hrs they are required to hand out snacks, drinks, and allow lavatory service. Airline sirvice is bad, but this is worse
Yet, this was not an aircraft.
Yes, but the flight crew is on the aircraft. That's why I don't ride these things. Something tells me these accidents and incidents would be a lot fewer if, as with an aircraft, "The pilot is always first to arrive at the scene of the accident."
BobW, so you propose the ride operators should all go up with the ride? Then exactly who would fix it if/when it gets stuck?
Imagine if the ride was one that put you upside down and it got stuck. I guess it could always be worse.
That very thing happened to me and a friend when we were 11 or 12. We hung upside down over a padded bar in a gondola cage type ferris wheel for almost two hours.
I usually carry a roll of dental floss and would have shimmied down safely after tying off the floss..like batman and robin going down the side of building when a window opens up...
This is the reason I won't ride on anything that goes up in the air.
Rides that go REALLY high,like drop tower rides can be a lot of fun,but with them it's always in the back of your mind that all it would take would be for the brakes to malfunction as you drop,and you'd plummet from 200 or 300 feet right into the cement below you.
I don't believe I'll be riding any rides that Knott's Berry Farm inspected for safety, any time soon.
some lowlife lawyers now have something to do.
Hey, Lawyers gotta eat too!
Seriously, I agree.
Lowlife lawyers and folks who want something for nothing are the reasons for a lot of problems in this country.
Is the amusement park gonna get sued?
I hope so. Maybe that's what it takes for them to stop cutting costs and cutting corners on safety and service. this ride's malfunctioned twice in one month. in my youth, that would have been unheard of and the damn thing would have been shutdown for safety concerns. You know, back when we had laws.
hopefully it shows up on their gate receipts.
I won't go near an amusement park anymore. I don't trust the companies running them to be concerned about either my amusement or my safety.
I agree with you Mr. or Ms. me.
Yes. They malfunctioned at two different parks. Go work in a maintenance career field. You will find that no matter how good an inspection is completed in the morning. Even 1/2 a days use can cause parts that were fine at the morning inspection to malfunction. That is why rides have safety mechanisms in case this happens. There is only so much preventative maintenance that can be done.
1 malfunction is an anomaly. 2 is cause for concern. I am sure they will keep it shutdown for an inspection into the cause and to see if they are related.
Everything was done correctly and safely. I never saw in the article where they cut corners in either aspect.
The mistakes, flaws and corruption don'tt come out until much later, when people aren't paying so much attention, and it is harder to pinpoint blame, etc. What the comment by "me" refers to is the trend towards cutting services and costs for short term profits and savings. You refer to the "maintenance career field,"...well it is no longer like that. Unions that foster career jobs are all but gone. So you are left with outsourcing and lower paid jobs. Training and regulation degrades. We don't want government around so the budgets for these things are cut.
BTW they didn't call the FD to try to minimize the pr damage, and keep the incident from much more government investigation. They obviously did not know what happened, because their first attempt at fixing the ride failed. What if it was a structural problem and the darn thing collapsed. If two dozen construction workers were trapped on top of a building, or on top of a crane, you don't think the authorities would be called? Read carefully the words of the fire dept. Captain. He doesn't defend Knott's. He says "firefighters were not called to respond to the malfunctioning ride." Read that twice. It might not have required a rescue opration, but I guarentee you some of those people were sick.
If you don't think being stuck on a swing 300 feet in the air can freak someone out, talk to someone who works with MRI machines how people react to being in that for an hour!
Anyone up for a lift? lol
I hope they were compensated grandly. I have medicines that have to be taken at moderate intervals.
For starters, priority service to the nearest lavatory once on the ground.
Then, the best/nicest meal the park could provide.
Their choice of 3-5 souvenirs - no price limit!
Tickets to come back with unlimited rides on everything plus a reasonable meal & a reasonable souvenir for that visit.
Compensation must be to the level that the persons involved have nothing but positives to say about their experience. Amusement parks are taking a large enough hit already from the economy. Those places employ thousands of people so they need to protect their employees from further economic disruptions.
Being stranded like that can be life threatening in and of itself. Someone with anxiety issues could go into a serious cardiac episode being stuck that high for that long when simply riding the ride would not be a problem.
Knotts need to step up and show some near perfect A1* customer service. Otherwise, this could be a serious fiasco, maybe even a game ending episode depending on who exactly are the persons who were stuck up there for all of those hours.
Don't blame the amusement park because you've got issues. Normal people can sit for 3 hours and be perfectly safe.
"Someone with anxiety issues" ISN'T GETTING ON THE RIDE IN THE FIRST PLACE. What are you, the competition?
Let's assume you didn't visit the bathroom shortly before getting in line for the ride because you didn't feel the need to go at that time. Now add another three hours to that time along with the fact that you may have recently downed a large soda, or a prune juice in your case. Now maybe you have a reason for anxiety issues, or maybe not since you must wear Depends to be so sure of not having issues.
oh yea please give me free admission and more rides--like I would ever ride anything again if I had this happen to me!
You have the right to stay home and curl up in a ball and hide under the bed.
These types of incidents are fond memories. Its better than telling the story of how you once commented on a news story about people that were enjoying life and the man-made machine broke down.
really? someone with anxiety issues could go into sudden cardiac arrest? More like they would go street rat crazy and freak out, making everyone else around them anxious. By the list of your demands, had it been you stuck on that ride, I'm sure you would sue over getting fat from eating too many french fries...
good post and right on target. i'm sure the legions of corporatist warriors on this site will find a way to blame everything on the riders.
all hail the corporation!
People with anxiety "issues" need to go to movies, not theme parks.
Bump and run: You sound like someone who would be fun to go to an amusement park with!
As to all of you negativos, you are just wet blankets at best.
As to anxiety issues, my older son has a friend he is usually able to "encourage" on to rides like this who has serious height anxieties. Being stuck up there for three hours rather than 3-5 minutes may actually be enough to cause physical harm to him, if not death.
So, all of you who decided to be mean and nasty, well then, may you be harassed for at least the next week with every source of anxiety and distress you are plagued by. MEAN PEOPLE SUCK THE BIG ONE!!!
Anyone want to go for a loooooooooooooooooooooong ride again up there?? By the way how is the weather up there!! Anyone want a drink? or use the bathroom? It will be loooooooong time so just sit back and enjoy our latest movie STRANDED! IN MIDAIR WHITH NOWHERE TO GO BUT DOWN!!!
I've been on this same ride several times at kings dominion here in Va. & we've never had any problems with it getting stuck.The ride designers engineered this ride(as they do on all rides) with redundant safety systems but as usual the media always OVERHYPES incidents like this in an effort to dramatize the story & get ratings.
Well...having the same ride get stuck in the same way twice in 12 days sounds like a pretty big deal...as an engineer myself, that is NOT a good track record. Not six sigma engineering, that's for sure.
Knotts is right down the street from our house. The helicopters were hovering for hours. There were indeed people stuck up at the top of the swings, we can see the ride from our house. They were up there for over 3 hours. No need to over-hype that. They were up there until after the park closed (it closed at 6pm) and their families were trying to figure out where the heck they were! And yes, it's a repeat occurence, just happened on Sept 7th I believe. Their root cause analysis apparently didn't actually get to the root cause...or they didn't fully implement enough action items to make sure this didn't happen again.
Hay Monica, could it been cause by a miner Earthquake?
And the same ride had a similar malfunction at Carowinds in NC in July.
I would have passed out. Of course, I wouldn't have ridden on it in the first place since I am terrified of heights.
Typical...the same thing happened to riders TWICE at the Minnesota State Fair this summer. But since this was in California, of course it's automatically headline news. There is a huge country between the coasts, news people!!
Sorry for the rant. That being said, very glad the people on the ride are all safe!!
California > Minnesota
Umm Jaime-1391424, I did hear about the ride at the MN state fair on the national news. Maybe it's time you checked out other channels as well.
That's why people ride these things: To get a THRILL, I guess for them it was nothing but Thrillseeker's paradise? lol
I would have been crappin' my pants!!!
This same ride has also malfunctioned and gotten stuck at Cedar Point and Carowinds, also for about 3 hours. Looks like they need to figure out the cause and correct the problem.
Seems to me they all need to remove the damn ride
I would have just jumped from seat to seat until I made it down. I probably would have made it down after the first seat.
Yes, Dr. Knowalittle. I am certain you would have very quickly made it down after the first seat. And you would have stopped very quickly, too.
Now that I have seen the ride in its entirety I see it is a circle. It would have been a loooong day, or maybe it would be cut short.
i dont like heights that well to have paid admission fee to go 300 feet in the air and be tossed around .
If I was up there, I'd want to take a picture and post it to my Facebook saying that I'm part of the Mile High club. Just as long as I don't drop my phone...
Oh Hell No!
with the drug abused people that put up and maintain these rides,,,im not at all suprised,,,stupid people really need to quit breeding ,,,im talking riders and maintenance
they're called Carnies....
If you're going to rant about the stupidity of other people, the very least you could do is demonstrate that you're smarter than the people you rant about. You know, with capitalization and proper punctuation and all that? (Hint: multiple commas only serve to make you look "special")
By the way, these are permanent rides; Knott's Berry Farm isn't some traveling carnival. I helped build three of the coasters at King's Dominion, VA and guess what? We were drug tested once a month, not to mention anytime there was an accident (like a minor laceration), as well. There are inspectors who literally go over every inch of the ride, safety meetings and OSHA breathing down your neck every day.
So, now that your ignorant, stereotyping massacre of the English written word has been discounted, I feel smarter already. http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2njvda2wQ1qe5ewu.gif