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400-foot Ferris wheel stops: All 66 riders safely taken off

The Columbian
Published: July 4, 2015, 12:00am

ORLANDO, Fla. — A technical crew with The Orlando Eye safely evacuated all 66 stranded riders from the Ferris wheel that towers 400 feet over central Florida after the attraction shut down Friday afternoon, authorities said.

Orange County Fire Rescue spokeswoman Kathleen Kennedy said no one was hurt and all were taken off in an operation lasting about three hours with help from several firefighters.

She said the attraction, which is billed by operators as the largest observation wheel on the East Coast, had initially stopped for more than 45 minutes.

Power was restored via a backup generator and a technical team at the attraction, backed by the firefighters, carried out the task of removing riders from the enclosed capsules after each was brought down to the platform, officials said.

Six elite rescue climbers with the fire rescue squad were dispatched but weren’t needed for a climb, Kennedy said. They were part of a 40-person agency special operations team that had climbed the attraction in training before.

Andrea Alava, a public relations manager for The Orlando Eye, issued a statement that the attraction had shut down as a safety precaution before the team went to a backup operation. She said its teams carried out the actual evacuation, not firefighters as some reports initially suggested.

“At approximately 3:45 p.m., the operating systems for the Orlando Eye indicated a technical default with the system that monitors the wheel position of the Orlando Eye. As a safety precaution, the attraction is designed to automatically shut down if communication with this system is interrupted,” Alava said in an emailed statement.

The statement said Eye representatives kept up two-way visual and audio communication with the riders “to ensure their safety and comfort” and that their priority was to ensure they safely disembarked.

The Orlando Sentinel reported that some of those stranded were tweeting from the ride that it had been stopping and starting.

One rider identified by the paper as Makayla Bell tweeted about 5:40 p.m., “Yes we finally started moving! Hopefully we get down soon. They keep stopping hopefully to get people off.”

Kennedy said that all taken off were checked as a precaution, but no one needed medical treatment. Photos on local media sites showed firefighters and others atop ladders around capsules that had been lowered to the platform.

The attraction’s website said the wheel features fully enclosed and air-conditioned capsules and “provides breathtaking views.”

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