Visitors to a theme park in the United States were stuck upside down for about 15 minutes after their ride suffered a malfunction, the New York Post reported. The accident occurred at the Arkansas State Fair on Saturday on the X-Drive Car, a 16-seat attraction that places passengers on the other end of a rotating arm and features rotating seats that freely flip passengers. “The trip computer received an error” because it was down for 10 to 12 minutes, midway vice president of North American entertainment services Scooter Couric said in a statement. Maintenance personnel responded and eventually rotated the ride, the outlet reported.
“The flight computer received an error. What it does is when it finds something it doesn’t like, it turns it off. So, the flight was in the air, not in landing mode, for about 10 to 12 minutes,” Mr. Couric said in the post. He also stated that he still had confidence in the safety of the flight.
“Let me break it to you briefly. Any member of my family can go on any of our rides any day. That’s how good I feel about our programs, our safety programs, and the people who work for us to operate and take care of these rides,” he said.
However, a mother, whose two children were stuck upside down during the flight, criticized the organisers. Allie Metzger, who shared a video on Facebook, claimed her two children, ages 8 and 11, were lifted several feet off the ground when the ride stopped working. “They are trying to get my kids off, they have been stuck upside down for at least 15 minutes,” she wrote, as workers tried to manually rotate the ride to help stranded passengers.
“There’s a group of people trying to make the ride go around, and they’re about halfway there. Then they’re right back at the top, with my kids still upside down. So, I’m panicking. My partner’s panicking,” Ms. Metzger told local media.
Ms. Metzger’s 11-year-old daughter said separately that she did not remember much of what happened. The mother said: “She told me when she came home that she only remembers crying, and then she became dizzy. Her legs were hurting. I think her circulation was cut off.”
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Following the incident, Ms. Metzger objected to the exhibition, demanded her money back and summoned a member of staff. “After what I spent to get here? Give me my money back,” she wrote on Facebook. “Oh, I filled out a nice complaint,” she added.
The complaint was directed at a flight attendant who allegedly told the parents to “calm down, it’s only been four and a half minutes and you’re making it worse.” She added: “My shout out to the nice lady in the medical tent who made sure my children were okay and gave us our money back. I remember why I didn’t come here.”