Ride stoppages ‘standard’ despite two incidents

Savannah Meacham |

Sea World says all its rides get daily, weekly and monthly inspections and maintenance.
Sea World says all its rides get daily, weekly and monthly inspections and maintenance.

Thrill seekers have been stuck mid-air on rides at a popular Queensland theme park twice in a week.

But the operator says ride stoppages are standard procedure and quelled concerns about a broader systems issue.

People were stuck mid-air on the Vortex attraction, a 15-metre-high spinning ride, at Sea World on the Gold Coast for more than 90 minutes on Tuesday.

Sea World said the “standard” ride stoppage was caused by a sensor communication fault.

Sea World marine animal park on the Gold Coast
Emergency services were called when ridegoers at Sea World became stuck on the Vortex. (Regi Varghese/AAP PHOTOS)

Paramedics assessed 12 people after they were rescued from the ride but no one required hospitalisation, Queensland Ambulance Service said.

The ride will remain closed on Wednesday so Sea World’s engineering team can conduct diagnostic testing of its systems.

It is the second incident in less than a week after ridegoers were trapped for an hour on the Leviathan roller-coaster which stopped after a sensor was activated on Thursday.

The theme park said the two incidents are “completely unrelated” and the stoppages are a normal part of attraction operation procedures globally.

Sea World said faults on rides that cause a stoppage can normally be cleared by using a computer system to bring passengers back to the ground.

But in some cases, the ride has to be lowered manually.

“We understand that these ride stoppages can result in guests being on the ride for a longer duration than anticipated,” the company said in a statement.

Sea World said emergency services occasionally had to be called in to help with the rescue in case the manual process to return passengers did not work.

That was why emergency services were called on Tuesday when ridegoers were stuck on the Vortex however fire crews were not required.

The company said safety was the key consideration during the rescue process.

“Our team regularly train for these exercises,” the company said.

Sea World reiterated all rides received daily, weekly and monthly inspections and maintenance to alleviate concerns.

AAP