People left hanging upside down from theme park ride after it breaks down in mid-air
Theme park-goers got more of a scare than a thrill after they became stuck upside down on a pendulum ride in Canada for almost half an hour during a breakdown.
The harrowing incident occurred on The Lumberjack ride in Canada’s Wonderland in Vaughan, Ontario, last September.
Social media footage filmed by Jiashira Rivera shows the ride become ‘inverted’ and get stuck upwards at a 180°C angle.
This left the swing’s 45 passengers dangling in the air, with one describing to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) how tears streamed back into their eyes.
Spencer Parkhouse, 11, said he at first thought the ride grinding to a halt was part of the experience.
But when they looked down below to see ambulances pulling up dozens of feet below them, they knew something was wrong.
Spencer said: ‘[I was] just like feeling – when are we going to drop down? Are we ever going to drop down?’
He added that one panicked rider vomited while he and his sister, 15, felt their legs go numb.
Even when engineers got the Lumberjack working again at 11.05pm, the attraction still had to carry out its cycle so they couldn’t immediately get off.
‘So the ride kept going and we’re all like, “No, please, I don’t want to get stuck again,”‘ Spencer said.
Amusement park staff asked riders if anyone had fainted or thrown up as their over-the-shoulder harnesses finally popped up and they were free to disembark.
Two passengers had experienced chest pain and were seen by on-site health workers before being released, a spokesperson said.
‘Guests were unloaded safely and assessed by first aid staff before being released back into the park,’ they said.
‘The safety of our guests is always our first priority.’
The Lumberjack opened in 2018 and has two axe-shaped pendulums that reach heights of up to 75ft, according to Canada’s Wonderland.
Its ‘face-to-face seats let guests interact with one another and watch the terror on their friends’ faces as they loop round and round’.
The ride remained closed yesterday as park officials launched an investigation into the malfunction.
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