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Thanksgiving night turned terrifying for a few people who chose to spend the holiday at Orlando's Universal Studios Florida theme park. On Thursday night, November 23, a few riders got stuck in a vertical position while on the theme park's Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster. There were no reported injuries.
Officials stated that the Universal Studios incident occurred at around 8:30 pm leaving 24 unfortunate thrill seekers stranded vertically for almost an hour before they were rescued by firefighters. According to WKMG, the ride seemed to be functioning again on the very next day. This is also not the first time the ride has left people stranded, having previously done so in 2013 and 2019.
Universal Studios guests were stuck on the roller coaster for nearly an hour
On Thanksgiving night, as a few unlucky visitors at the Universal Studios Florida were left stranded atop the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster, photos and videos of the same began circulating online.
Passengers were stuck near the top of the 167-foot tall ride as the coaster stopped mid-ascension. Disney Dining reported that the Orlando Police Department, who arrived at the scene, initiated an emergency call for the Orlando Fire Department, who in turn carried out a "technical rescue" operation. The fire department informed Fox 35 that no injuries were reported from the incident.
Fox 35 shared pictures and a video of the Universal Studios ride being stuck mid-ascension. Dennis Malesky, an eyewitness saw the whole situation unfold, told Fox 35 that this was the only ride in the whole Universal Studios Florida theme park that he had not tried yet, adding that "it will probably stay that way".
Malesky told the outlet:
"We were walking out of the park as it was closing time and seen a group of people taking pictures of the Rip Ride Rockit. That seemed kind of odd until we looked up and seen the group stuck on the ride."
Malesky also said that the fire department arrived shortly but initially, the situation remained unchanged. They added:
"Universal employees made everyone who didn’t know anyone on the ride leave, as it was much after closing. On our way out, we seen the car finally move. They must have been up there an hour."
According to a Ride Guys video on the official Universal Orlando website, the roller coaster takes people around 3,800 feet of track in a minute and 39 seconds with an impressive maximum G-force of 4G, which helps it to achieve a top speed of 65 miles per hour.
However, interestingly, the coaster does not go in a fully upside-down loop as the loop is barrelled, twisting the carts on it. The ride travels a straight 90 degrees upwards before immediately plummetting 167 feet straight downwards. Passengers are tightly restrained in the ride using a lap bar.
This is not the only incident of the ride malfunctioning. After opening for guests in August 2009, in 2013, a malfunction left 12 passengers stranded on the coaster for around 3 hours due to a technical glitch that caused the ride to go into safety mode. One woman was treated for minor injuries. In 2019, another similar glitch caused 12 passengers in two different vehicles to be stuck.
