Two Sea World ride stoppages in a week ‘standard’, says theme park

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

But the operator said ride stoppages were standard procedure, and tried to quell concerns about a broader systems issue.

People were stuck midair 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.

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

The ride remained closed on Wednesday so Sea World’s engineering team could conduct diagnostic testing of its systems.

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

The theme park said the two incidents were unrelated and the stoppages were a normal part of attraction operation procedures globally.

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

But in some cases, the ride had 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