Thrill-seekers have been given a rude surprise after getting trapped on one of Rainbow's End rides after a sensor issue.
A video emerged on social media last week capturing the moment riders on Rainbow's End Fear Fall got stuck near the highest point of the ride, with those on-board facing a nerve-wracking wait unit it restarted.
Rainbow's End CEO Karen Crabb told Newshub the mechanical issue occurred last Monday at around 12pm, which caused riders to be stuck in mid-air for at least two minutes.
"All of our rides are designed with significant safety mechanisms and features to ensure they can only ever operate when it is safe to do so," Crabb said.
"On this occasion as the ride was being dispatched the sensors tripped at the control panel. As designed by the manufacturer, at this point the ride stops."
Crabb said the ride operator spoke to the people on the ride over the public address system and the maintenance team was at the ride within two minutes.
"The ride was released for a slow, controlled return to the bottom. All guests were safely offloaded," Crabb said.
"Once the guests were offloaded, the maintenance team followed our normal procedures to do a complete re-check of the ride, they then cleared it as safe to operate."
Crabb added the ride returned to normal operation within 20 minutes and there have been no further faults with the ride since this.
The breakdown caused alarm to some people who commented on the video.
"Imagine if this happened to us," one person said, while another added, "I’m never going on that ride again seeing that".
Another person added, "I would’ve cried so hard bro" while a fourth person said, "Worst nightmare for me".
But one person had a different perspective saying "wished that happened to us".
