Airmaxx 360 ride was sold to a UK company after the accident which killed Adelene Leong, Coroner’s Court documents reveal
A show ride with a “troubling history” of safety failures was sold to a UK company and was used after the death of Adelene Leong, court documents reveal.
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The deadly show ride which “catapulted” an eight year old girl to her death was quietly sold, shipped out of the country and was used again in the UK, Coroners Court documents reveal.
The statement of Jenny-Lee Sullivan, who owned and operated the Airmaxx 360 with her husband Clinton Watkins, shows that the pair felt they could never operate the ride again after the death of Adelene Leong in September 2014.
Instead the machine was sold at a fraction of its purchase price to Kain Taylor, a UK showman who is beleived to have introduced the ride as one of his own under a new name in 2017.
It is unclear if the ride is still in use as Taylor’s Funfairs was forced to reduce its operations in response to COVID-19.
Ms Sullivan’s statement, which was released by the court showed the couple purchased the ride for approximately $846,000 from Safeco and had it shipped into Australia from Spain in April 2013.
The ride was sold in September 2016, two years after Adelene’s death, to Mr Taylor for $180,000.
“Although we knew it was possible to take steps to place the Airmaxx 360 back into operation following the removal of the prohibition notices, after the incident involving Adelene, we couldn’t bring ourselves to do so,” she wrote.
“Neither (Mr Watkins) nor I felt that mentally we could ever operate the ride again.
“By choosing not to operate the ride again, we were left in a difficult financial situation with a large loan which required payment.
“Because of this we decided to sell the ride.”
Ms Sullivan said in her statement that she told Mr Taylor “that a little girl had died after coming out of a seat on the ride”.
“Mr Taylor told me he would take the ride back to Safeco so that it could be assessed and improved, then he would operate it in the UK,” she wrote.
In 2017, a social media page run by Taylor’s Funfairs posted several teaser photos of a new ride.
The photos of the ride match those released by the Coroner’s Court taken by Adelene’s mother only minutes before she was thrown from the ride.
In the opening of the inquest on Wednesday, counsel assisting the coroner Sally Giles said that Airmaxx 360 had a “troubling history” of incidents and safety failures.
Deputy Coroner Ian White also heard that Adelene’s mother had needed to alert staff at the ride twice that her daughter was not secure.
Adelene’s mother wrote that her daughter “looked worried that she was not secured in her seat”.
The inquest, which is expected to last until the end of May, continues on Friday.
Originally published as Airmaxx 360 ride was sold to a UK company after the accident which killed Adelene Leong, Coroner’s Court documents reveal
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