KMG Afterburner accident - Ohio State Fair "Fire Ball" ride

[RabbiJody]

11 minutes ago, djrappa said:

Is the orange piece steel or fibreglass?

If it's steel and torn like that then looks like a very serious catastrophic metal fatigue issue.

Almost certain it's the metal connecting arm. You're right, metal fatigue seems to be a good guess. 

 

To to the right of the broken arm you can see the far left seat of the gondola opposite, which appears to be mostly intact  I had originally thought the two people falling had come from that seat and the one next to it, with those seats breaking apart or the harnesses failing upon impact with the detached carriage. As mentioned in the last post, I now the two people came from the detached seats. 

[Reanimated35]

[New display name]

What current news sites area saying.

A review of service bulletins issued by the Netherlands company that manufactures the Fire Ball thrill ride found "structural fatigue, "cracking" and weakened welds during past inspections in other parts of the ride.

Officials say they do not know what caused the ride to break apart, but speculation from investigators mounts that the Dutch-built ride from respected thrill ride manufacturer, KMG, failed due to a catastrophic structural failure from sources that may include internal rusting and poor design around a weld-joint that tore off the 4-person bench, during peak G-force in the swing arc. The weld join in question was re-designed on later models with a bolt plate, however, this particular ride, was one of the older KMG makes, manufactured in 1998. KMG have subsequently issued a worldwide order to cease operation of all KMG Fireballs.

[Levithian]

That's not where the cracks were found being addressed by that bulletin.

http://www.caresofficials.org/sites/default/files/technical_info/kmg-international_fireball-kmg_frb-sb006_1237.pdf

It starts talking about bearings and shows a flange clearly in the drawing for the repair. They are talking about the bolted section where the main swing arm joins the chassis that holds the gondolas. Not each arm to the gondola itself.

It's the flange in the top right of the above.

And in the middle of the above.

[New display name]

That's why it says "in other parts of the ride".

[rappa]

Yeah I agree with Skeet (holy shit!). It also sounds to exactly describe the style of joint/weld where the ride failed. 

Also interesting that subsequent designs added strengthening plates in that area but this did not. 

Also scary is it says the fix should involve magnetic NDT on the joints in question. I would have expected this would be park of regular annual maintenance anyway. If it's not just chalk it up to another reason I don't ride these death trap trailer machines that are assembled by hillbillies

no offense of course 

[Levithian]

It doesn't say anything of the sort. I had a look at that facebook group too and lots of people are sighting the above service bulletin as the manufacturer admitting there was a flaw and this is the reason why it should have been shut down, and the reason for the possible cause of the accident. None of that could be further from the truth, it's clear as day what the bulletin refers to and the failure wasn't in any areas previously identified. 

FYI, The other service bulletin SB007 is out there for the restraints and also includes diagrams.

http://www.caresofficials.org/sites/default/files/technical_info/kmg-international_fireball-kmg_frb24-sb007_1286.pdf

where the hell you guys are getting information that links the above with this failure, I'd like to know (or you guys need to go back and read something properly).

Edit: Just to further the point that the two are completely unrelated parts of the ride, here is a new bulletin from tivoli placing attention on the seat supports and tubes. Nothing at all to do with the swing arm fatigue found and addressed previously by kmg.

http://www.caresofficials.org/sites/default/files/technical_info/tivoli-amtech-sosa019-1732.pdf

Edited July 29, 2017 by Levithian

[rappa]

My point is (and where the hell im getting this idea is simple good practice!) was the area that failed subjected to regular NDT intervals as standard procedure? 

If not then why the bloody hell not? It's a high stress critical weld for an amusement device. Every theme park ride your get on in Australia is subjected to such testing. 

[Tim Dasco]

@djrappa I understand your point but this is America. They might have different rules and laws governing maintenance. Australia has very high standards and often requires extra stuff. But no doubt regular NDT intervals should be required on all rides in every country especially on high stress areas.

[Levithian]

no because it is not required.

Firstly, it's not a joint and it isn't a weld. So what are you going to NDT exactly? It literally looks like the plate steel sheared completely through where the seat support arm is. If there weren't any visual indications (and if you could actually see the area properly) like cracking in the paint or other distortions in the surface, you wouldn't be able to tell that was going to happen during routine checks and there would be no reason to perform testing on the area.

If it's not listed as an area of high stress, if it's not previously listed as an area of failure or fatigue, you can't just randomly go and NDT every entire surface of a ride. Aside from being impractical and just outright expensive, what about the time it takes? The ride wouldn't b able to operate with it closed so often.

As sad as it is, looking back through history of engineering (and not just amusement rides), a great deal of previously undetected failures in design or underlying metallurgy issues were found and corrected only when a failure occurred. Sometimes all the best math just can't account for the unexpected. Things like water ingress for example wreak havoc with structural components and often there is no sign anything is wrong until physical signs of fatigue present.

People who fly off the handle and blame manufacturers digging up "documents" that they either don't understand, or don't care to read are the same sort of people that fueled the fires when the terrible accident happened at dreamworld. Everyone on parkz hated that kind of coverage and blame game, especially when there was so much completely incorrect and misleading "fact" reporting, but now it's happening on the other side of the world it's ok? You guys are a bunch of hypocrites.

Wait until more information is made available and another statement is released from the ride manufacturer and don't jump to completely incorrect conclusions. It only makes the whole tragedy much worse. 
 

[rappa]

Umm did you look at the drawings? 

Its a weld. It goes from plate steel to round tube. You can see the round cut out in the plate. 

There is every possibility that an undetected (which is easy if you never do testing) fatigue crack propogated from the welded connection up to the point of failure. 

 

As for high stress, this join takes the entire load of the seating assembly and transfers it to the main support assembly. I think even a first year apprentice can identify that as a high stress area. 

 

I squarly laid blame based on facts for the Dreamworld accident, I just didn't do so publically in the media and I'm not doing so here. Merely commenting on the facts provided. I don't blame the manufacturer, I blame the industry. 

 

And yes, I do expect a then to test every critical component and part of the ride and I'm sorry if that means it's out of action for 2 months of the year. Why? Because it's best practice and what all of our theme parks do is to keep you and everyone else safe every day. 

I think some people would be very surprised to learn in just how many pieces say one of Superman's trains is in right now. To ensure nothing is missed. 

 

Someone is dead, I do think "it would take too much time and be too expensive to test properly" is gonna cut it anymore than "nah we decided a sensor to stop the raft conveyor in the event of a backup was too much hassle" would. 

[AllegroCrab]

5 hours ago, Levithian said:

People who fly off the handle and blame manufacturers digging up "documents" that they either don't understand, or don't care to read are the same sort of people that fueled the fires when the terrible accident happened at dreamworld. Everyone on parkz hated that kind of coverage and blame game, especially when there was so much completely incorrect and misleading "fact" reporting, but now it's happening on the other side of the world it's ok? You guys are a bunch of hypocrites.

The difference here is that people are trying to find the actual cause of this incident. I had no qualms with media being critical of the industry after the TRRR incident, these things simply should not happen. My only gripe was when journalists and news outlets had no interest in reporting relevant facts or trying to get to the bottom of the situation, who were instead just fanning the flames, bringing up every unrelated past incident at any theme park to get clicks on their news story. That's not what's happening here, people are genuinely trying to get the facts out of this situation.

Why should we be trying to defend the industry when someone went on a ride to enjoy themselves, but didn't return home that night? There is no defence for that. We have to be critical here, don't just defend it blindly because you love the industry, if anything you should be more critical if you love the industry.

[rappa]

Yep my thoughts exactly. 

[Reanimated35]

[AllegroCrab]

Well there's no NDT involved in the inspection process.

Quite shocked at the amount of people (here and elsewhere) who are labeling this an unpreventable incident. If this sort of failure was unpreventable we'd be seeing planes falling out of the sky due to fatigue failures all the time, however we don't, because NDT methods are implemented as standard in that industry to detect the signs of fatigue way before a failure like this will ever happen.

Just because we're not experts doesn't mean we're inherently wrong. You don't need to be an engineer to understand a lot of this stuff. Anyone who's ever played around with a paperclip knows if you bend the metal back and forward enough times it'll snap. NDT is the way of detecting the signs of fatigue that are not visible. If fatigue ends up being the main factor (it seems very, very likely at this point) then it'd be madness for NDT not to be introduced as standard for inspections from the results of investigations into this incident.

[rappa]

I feel if I've learnt anything from this it's in Australia not to trust these rides... and in America not to even go within a mile of them for risk of pieces falling off. 

[HussRainbow87]

10 hours ago, djrappa said:

I feel if I've learnt anything from this it's in Australia not to trust these rides... and in America not to even go within a mile of them for risk of pieces falling off. 

You can't really say that, when Australia has a relatively good track record with travelling rides here. The last major accident was Spin Dragon in 2000. The family that I work for maintain their rides superbly, and theres another family that keep their rides looking and running as if they have just left the factory.

Accidents happen, whether it be a travelling ride, a park ride, a plane, a car.... that's life.

There are some travelling rides I wouldn't go near, because i've seen how they are maintained, but the majority running at the capital shows are cared for, and all owners and operators work closely with engineers to ensure the safety of the public.

[New display name]

11 hours ago, AllegroCrab said:

we'd be seeing planes falling out of the sky due to fatigue failures.

The irony here is they first understood metal fatigue because planes started falling out of the sky.

9 minutes ago, HussRainbow87 said:

There are some travelling rides I wouldn't go near, because i've seen how they are maintained, but the majority running at the capital shows are cared for, and all owners and operators work closely with engineers to ensure the safety of the public.

That's the problem.  Us laymen don't know how to spot out a bad apple and these bad operators do slip through the system.  You only have look at the accident in S.A.  How am I meant to know the ride was not certified to operate in Australia?

 

[rappa]

Yeah I see a lot of XYZ maintain their rides looking great. 

TBH until someone comes out and tells me "regulations state that all rides have a compulsory annual tear down to component level and NDT of all critical components" I've no interest in the things. 

 

Doesnt sound like thats going to be any time soon?

 

Also legitimate question... Does anyone know of traveling ride operators had the same procedure and maintenance audits the parks did from the government after the DW accident?

[webslave]

To be fair, singling out amusement rides for that type of maintenance requirement whilst ignoring a huge range of other potential risk activities could be seen as a bit of a stretch, no?  I mean, do we think public transport is getting an annual tear-down to component level and NDT happening?  Airlines, perhaps.  Trains?  Very dubious.  Cars?  Probably not.  What about balconies?  Nah.  Agree, having eyes open to this type of stuff is smart business.

I think we probably need to accept that parks and travelling amusements are two completely different businesses and although there can be a crossover in the rides the maintenance requirements, maintenance procedures, and operational drivers are entirely different.  We can talk about travelling rides getting a quarterly teardown and NDT if we want to, but will it stop incidents?  Do the procedures the parks undergo stop incidents?  I understand that saying that proper testing and maintenance is going to be too expensive so let's not do it is never going to be something palatable, but at the same time we also can't deny that we need to strike a balance.  After all, we already strike a balance on this anyway.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

It comes down to the manufacturer also - the manufacturer should stipulate what maintenance is needed, and when. Government regulations can impose harsher \ more in depth maintenance than the manufacturer, but that's it. You can't really expect the owner of an amusement device to do anything more than what the manufacturer specifies is required.

If the manufacturer says 'this component is good for XX time period' - why would they spend money with costly testing and analysis every <shorter time period than specified> ?

Until the parks unbolt every piece of track to inspect at component level, frankly, we should consider all coasters to be death traps too. This should happen at least once every 42 days.

[HussRainbow87]

2 hours ago, Skeeta said:

The irony here is they first understood metal fatigue because planes started falling out of the sky.

 

That's the problem.  Us laymen don't know how to spot out a bad apple and these bad operators do slip through the system.  You only have look at the accident in S.A.  How am I meant to know the ride was not certified to operate in Australia?

 

The ride was certified to operate in Australia prior to the accident in 2000, but with negligence on the owners behalf, the accident happened and not maintained in the proper way to ensure safe operation. I think since the accident, Fabbri Space Loops aren't certified to operate in Australia. Don't quote me on that. Im sure there was an uproar when AVENGER came to Australia, but its been operating successfully at some capitals, not Adelaide though.

I have the manual for the XXL and it is extensive in regards to maintenance and mandatory checks. If anything comes from this accident is that owners are more vigilant with regular checks, not only for travelling rides, but park models too.

1 hour ago, djrappa said:

Yeah I see a lot of XYZ maintain their rides looking great. 

TBH until someone comes out and tells me "regulations state that all rides have a compulsory annual tear down to component level and NDT of all critical components" I've no interest in the things. 

 

Doesnt sound like thats going to be any time soon?

 

Also legitimate question... Does anyone know of traveling ride operators had the same procedure and maintenance audits the parks did from the government after the DW accident?

I think WorkSafe did put something out, not 100% sure though. In regards to the annual tear down, Most rides I have been around have full inspections during off periods, and have work done, whether that be lighting, electrical, mechanical... it does get done. Its just not as obvious like seeing Wipeout in pieces during the year, but it does get done, and this includes entirely pulling the ride to pieces and having parts x-rayed etc.

Edited July 31, 2017 by HussRainbow87

[New display name]

I'm talking about the Airmaxx 360 ride.

"The $868,000 ride, which was imported from Spain in June 2012, was subject to poor inspections that failed to highlight inadequate seat restraints and substandard oil and electronic systems.

The court heard no designs were registered with safety watchdogs, which is illegal.

The ride had been subject to at least nine audits prior to the accident from private safety inspectors and Queensland, New South Wales, Victorian and South Australian government officials."

 

Every state looked at it an not one state picked it up.

[HussRainbow87]

16 minutes ago, Skeeta said:

I'm talking about the Airmaxx 360 ride.

"The $868,000 ride, which was imported from Spain in June 2012, was subject to poor inspections that failed to highlight inadequate seat restraints and substandard oil and electronic systems.

The court heard no designs were registered with safety watchdogs, which is illegal.

The ride had been subject to at least nine audits prior to the accident from private safety inspectors and Queensland, New South Wales, Victorian and South Australian government officials."

 

Every state looked at it an not one state picked it up.

I'm honestly not sure how it passed inspections, I guess its something that will only ever be known from the owner and WorkSafe. I rode it once, never again, it wasn't anything special to be honest. The ride now is either in the USA already or on its way there. It's just a shame when a type of ride is purchased, and it's a copy of an original quality machine that uses cheaper materials.

[rappa]

1 hour ago, AlexB said:

Until the parks unbolt every piece of track to inspect at component level, frankly, we should consider all coasters to be death traps too. This should happen at least once every 42 days.

One of your stupidest remarks ever here. 1) Coaster tracks do not have components... two all welds are certified to begin with...three the connections ARE regularly inspected...four the lattice welds of the track are not considered high stress areas. 

The trains on the other hand do in fact receive this. 

 

 

 

As for considering parks and traveling rides differently... why? Just because the major maintenance parks go through is too expensive and inconvenient for carnival operators?

The ride mechanics and components are pretty well identical so why should one be subject to less scrutiny?

 

Also the analogy to public transport, elevators etc is also a poor one. Those items for one are used for necessity not fun so it's not a matter of just choosing to avoid them. 

Also these items aren't engineered on the boarder line, they have massive safety factor to reduce the requirement for inspections. 

People who are carnival fans are lacking perspective in this topic.