Rollercoaster malfunction leaves 25 hanging midair

Twentyfive people on the Diving Coaster at the Happy Valley park were terrified when the ride stopped suddenly and they were left dangling over 60 meters above the ground, the Shanghai Daily reported.
The amusement park said the cold weather may have caused a sensor to shut off the power as a safety measure.

The thrill seekers were stranded in the air for about half an hour and they were rescued by using an emergency stairway, said Xiao Dezhong, deputy director of Shenzhen-based OCT Group, Happy Valley's operator.

The roller-coaster has several circular and semi-circular loops and features a steep plunge from 65 meters at the end of the ride.

"It took 30 minutes for us to escape and there were a lot people on board. It's hard to imagine that we had even intended to grab a front-row seat," a panic-stricken passenger was quoted as saying.
Xiao said: "The carriage had just climbed over its highest point and was readying for a plunge down to the ground when the roller-coaster suddenly stopped."

"The investigation showed a sensor device on the coaster broke off by itself, generating a safety alert to suspend the machine from operating automatically."

The Diving Coaster, one of the highest in the world, suffered a similar breakdown March 21 last year when over 30 people were stranded after someone dropped a cell phone, the media report said.