NEWS: Guests Stuck 100 Feet in the Air for 4 Hours at Texas Theme Park

Here at AllEars, we love hopping on thrill rides at theme parks. Nothing beats the adrenaline rush of high speeds and a drop as fast as gravity!

But the reality is that sometimes, roller coasters will break down with people on the ride — 100 feet in the air!

Pleasure Pier in Galveston is a historic amusement pier with rides, games, and dining destinations on the Texas coast. The tallest roller coaster on the pier, Iron Shark, has a 100-foot vertical climb directly above the waters of the Gulf.

According to ABC, the Iron Shark abruptly stopped at 5:21 PM on Thursday, May 28th, leaving riders stuck on the 100-foot incline just before the top of the ride. The eight passengers were seated in two rows of four facing the sky. One by one, each rider was placed in a safety harness and guided into a truck basket, which then lowered them to the ground. While the ride stopped at 5:21 PM, the last rider was not extracted until “shortly after 9 PM,” according to a Galveston spokesperson.

Pleasure Pier officials released a statement on Friday afternoon saying that the riders were stuck after a sensor failed, causing a malfunction that was not detectable in advance of the incident. The ride stopped as it was designed to do during a sensor failure. This is the ride’s first major incident since its opening in 2012.

“Our focus immediately shifted to the safety of our guests. Therefore, we contacted the Fire Department for assistance to ensure all guests were safely removed from the ride. A thorough inspection of the ride will take place before it is placed back in service. The ride will only be placed back in service once we have completed a thorough investigation and ride safety testing is completed, to which we do not have a definitive timeline for just yet,” a spokesperson for Pleasure Pier’s parent company, Landry’s Inc., said.

Stay tuned to AllEars for more theme park news.

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Have you been stuck on a ride before? Let us know in the comments!