Aviator Breakdown

Medicmike911 · XLR-8 Rider Joined: 27 Jun 2007 Posts: 51

From KHOU Ch 11 Website:

http://www.khou.com/news/local/Terrifying-moments-when-Kemah-ride-malfunctions-165866926.html

HOUSTON—A grandmother’s plans with her grandchildren made a turn for the worse when a ride on the Kemah Boardwalk malfunctioned.

Barbara Amaton pictured a memorable afternoon with her four young grandchildren at the Kemah Boardwalk Thursday night. She even brought her video camera.

"Everybody was just all excited," she said. "The kids were picking out which rides they wanted to go on."

But their visit became memorable for the wrong reasons after a ride called "The Aviator" malfunctioned just after 6 p.m.

The ride features flying swings. Riders were slowly ascending, and were nearly 30-feet off of the ground, when they heard a loud boom.

"It was pretty scary," Anthony Amaton said, "some of [the ride] collapsed."

"It jerked the ride twice," Barbara Amaton said. "We didn’t know what was going on and then we heard screeching like they put the brakes on."

The ride stopped. Riders could hear orders from below to stay in their seats. Many could also see and hear falling debris.

"I heard someone shout ‘Watch out for your eyes,’" Samantha Amaton said. "I heard a bunch of stuff hitting our car, which I found out was light bulbs breaking."

As they were slowly lowered down, riders learned that no one was hurt.

The boardwalk’s general manager, Mark Kane, later released a statement.

"Our primary concern is always for the safety of our guests and employees," it read. "Our rides, maintenance and safety teams followed safety procedures to get all guests off the ride."

The statement also revealed that they were examining all aspects of the ride to determine a cause.

Barbara Amaton said a representative from the boardwalk gave her and her family free passes to come back. She told 11 News that she does not know how soon she will feel up to using them.

Mike Robinson · Site Admin Joined: 12 Mar 2002 Posts: 4184

Lets see,

Some of the lighting package comes off the ride, Ride Op hits the e-stop, riders evacuated off of ride after the cars were lowered.

No one was hurt and this is news.

in another story, there were probably at least 3 to 5 major accidents on the freeway that left a number of people hurt and hospitalized. That is not news.

What is it about Amusement attractions? We saw the same thing at Astroworld, and now Kemah. Priorities are screwed up.

ThatTh*ngGirl · Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 7:13 am Post subject:

coasterphotos · Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2012 6:52 pm Post subject:

Guess I missed this while I was in MN on vacation. For some reason news likes to make a big deal about anything that happens at an amusement park.

One of the nights we were in our hotel in MN we had the news on and a teaser before the commercial said "Guests spend terffiying minutes stranded on rides at Valleyfair, see what happend after the break." Or something like that.

Apparently the park lost power and guests had to be walked down from halfway up Wild Thing's lift....
_________________
Jason