Sea World Eye incident

[New display name]

Maintenance worker causes ride to malfunction at seaworld Carriages, with doors open, crash into each other Incident happened before opening hours Close call ... this photo, sent to NEWS.com.au, shows The Eye's carriage doors open at the Gold Coast's Sea World theme park.

Edited September 4, 2007 by skeetafly

[pin142]

Source: couriermail.com.au A MAINTENANCE worker caused an amusement park ride in Queensland to malfunction just weeks before five people died on an identical ride in Asia. The maintenance worker put "The Eye" ferris wheel on manual override, causing carriages to crash into each other while doors were open. Fortunately, the ferris wheel was tested before the Gold Coast Sea World theme park opened its doors for the day. Photographic evidence Photos of the incident, believed to have been taken by a maintenance worker at the scene, were sent to NEWS.com.au. Warner Village Theme Parks CEO John Menzies said management was not aware of the incident until they were shown the photos. “We were all staggered, it’s the first time we’ve seen it,” Mr Menzies told NEWS.com.au. “(An apprentice) had it in manual override and inadvertently left the doors open… maintenance didn’t report it.” The ride was usually tested by maintenance workers in “fail safe mode”, which was disabled at the time. He also said that “it could never happen if someone was on the ride”. "Full-blown review" “Immediately after the Korean incident we shut the ride and contacted the Swiss manufacturer," Mr Menzies said. “After making recommended manufacturer’s changes to the operation of the ride, it was re-opened briefly but we voluntarily closed the ride two weeks ago to conduct a full-blown review of its operation to be absolutely satisfied that it meets our stringent safety standards. “At the moment we are working closely with Queensland Workplace Health and Safety Group to ensure the ride is safe to re-open.” Five people were killed at a South Korean amusement park on August 13 after two ferris wheel carriages crashed into each other, forcing the doors to open and passengers to fall to their deaths.

[djsupersleuth]

So this happened before the Korean incident? How did nobody eg: Sea World management, notice damage to the gondola's? Surely maintenance would have reported this incident, if not someone is in deep.

[Gazza]

How the hell do you get the gondolas to flip like that?

[GoGoBoy]

I have no idea how this particular wheel works, but how on earth can 2 Ferris Wheel carriages crash into each other? Aren't they all attached to the samer outer rim? Or is this some weird kind of design where they all operate independently on a track? This incident doesn't look great for Sea World considering the Korean accident appears to have been almost identical. Maybe they will now be glad they are not keeping the eye permanently

[Dylaan]

Well I have no idea how it works, but I'm guessing they all operate independently of the track. When one stops to board, maybe the others keep going until they get within a certain distance of the next few cars... It was running in manual override so who knows what was possible?!

[New display name]

How much do these pictures look the same. SEAWORLD KOREA The question I have is what procedure is in place for Seaworld when something like this happens to a ride within their park? Does Seaworld notify the manufacture straight away? Does the manufacture notify other parks with a simular ride about the problem? Does the park that is notified shut down their ride until the problem is rectified? Clearly if all the above things had happened then it would not of clamed 5 lives in Korea. At what point are parks putting a profit before the guest safety.

Edited September 5, 2007 by skeetafly

[DEAP]

I believe you will find that the carriages are attached to the big ring (not operated independently) but the design allows them to swing (so they stay upright for passengers) but because they are so long (and where they are attached) this appears to have caused this to happen. I think the only way for this to have occurred is that the wheel was rotated in one direction and then quickly changed in the other (which would be only possible in manual over-ride) and the subsequent rocking of the gondolas allowed some/two to wedge together as seen in the above pictures.

[joz]

When the doors are left open, they make contact with the main part of the wheel, preventing the gondola from spinning and remaining upright. This could not happen during normal operations, as the ride is run in 'auto', and the system when in 'auto' will not allow the wheel to spin with a door open. The picture depicts what can happen with the ride in 'manual' and the doors left open. The photo of the Korean wheel shows what can happen when pins are inserted the wrong way and the doors aren't totally closed. Hope this helps.

[Gazza]

That is actually a pretty serious design flaw IMO, would it really be that hard to make the gap between the two rims wide enough so a car with the doors open can remain level and not get jammed on the rims.

[DEAP]

When the doors are left open, they make contact with the main part of the wheel, preventing the gondola from spinning and remaining upright. This could not happen during normal operations, as the ride is run in 'auto', and the system when in 'auto' will not allow the wheel to spin with a door open. The picture depicts what can happen with the ride in 'manual' and the doors left open. The photo of the Korean wheel shows what can happen when pins are inserted the wrong way and the doors aren't totally closed. Hope this helps.

I wonder if this is the case weather this was a test (possibly instigated by the manufacturer) to see if this is the cause of the Koren incident and if it was possible to reproduce the incident. Does any one know if there are many of this model of wheel around in the world?

[myk]

Sea World Eye is currently closed, they're making sure everything is a-okay.

[www worker]

i think this is a fake report the pictures could of been in a different park in the world any way it would of been on the news

[aidan]

yeah... good luck with that thought www-worker