Twenty people were left stranded at the top of a 32 metre rollercoaster that stalled at Gold Coast theme park Movie World on Wednesday.
The patrons were trapped after the Arkham Asylum rollercoaster malfunctioned just before midday, with firefighters called to help stage a “vertical rescue”.
The incident follows the deaths of four people on the Thunder River Rapids Ride at Dreamworld in October, which prompted a sweeping Queensland government safety audit of local theme park rides. Movie World rides were cleared by Worksafe Queensland in November.
Helicopter footage by Channel Seven showed the marooned patrons sitting upright with legs dangling near the peak of the 32 metre-high rollercoaster.
A Queensland fire and emergency services spokeswoman said all 20 patrons were rescued from the stalled ride by 1.30pm.
Sixteen of those were able to get down from the ride through standard park management procedures, while the remaining four required “technical assiatnce” from fire rescue crews, the spokeswoman said.
Some of the patrons were stuck on the ride in the midday sun for almost 90 minutes.
The Queensland Ambulance Service senior operations supervisor, Paul Young, said some had been rescued by the fire crew’s “extension cherry picker”, while the rest “walked down the stairs beside the ride”.
“They all looked a little bit flushed, a little bit hot as you would imagine, being in the sun,” he said. “But they’re all fine. No one actually required intervention or transport to any hospital.”
Young said the oldest patron was about 50 years and the youngest about 10 years.
It follows the rescue of 16 people who become stuck for 30 minutes on another Movie World rollercoaster, the Green Lantern, in November because of a “computer fault”. In 2015, six people had been trapped on the same rollercoaster for three hours.
Movie World describes the Arkham Asylum rollercoaster as the “first of its kind in the world”, with patrons offered a “360-degree virtual reality experience” through headsets that cover their eyes “with technology seamlessly syncing the movement of the coaster with the visual effects”.
Ambulance officers were on standby at the scene but there were no reports of injuries.
Movie World is owned by Village Roadshow, Dream World by Ardent Leisure.
