THIS is the terrifying moment kids were left dangling in the air upside down for 15 minutes as a carnival ride malfunctioned and parents watched on in horror.
Panicked mom Ally Metzger was at the Arkansas State Fair in Little Rock with her two kids, aged 8 and 11, when the shock incident took place.
Ally Metzger watched helplessly as her kids dangled up in the air for 15 minutes[/caption]
Ride attendants got them down safely by manually pushing their seats[/caption]
Footage that Ally shared to Facebook shows the kids stuck aboard the 16-seater rotating X-Drive ride after it suddenly halted to a stop.
Her children are seen trapped at the very top of the ride while amusement park staff tirelessly push the lower seats up manually to get it spinning.
They effectively propel the ride and it continues to function as usual, no longer leaving Ally’s kids stranded several feet off the ground mid-air.
In her Facebook clip she said: “They’re trying to get my kids down, they’ve been stuck upside down for 15 minutes at least.”
She told local broadcaster KATV: “There’s a bunch of people trying to get the ride to spin, and they would get it almost halfway down.
“Then it would go right back up to the very top, with my kids still upside down. So, I’m panicking. My partner’s panicking.”
Her 11-year-old daughter said she doesn’t remember much from her frightening time in air.
“She told me when she came home that she only remembered crying, and then, like, just got dizzy.
“Her legs were hurting, I guess because the circulation was out.”
And it wasn’t just Ally’s kids that were stranded up there – two other kids were also caught up in the ride’s malfunction but it’s not clear if they were injured.
A furious Ally told Facebook that she demanded a refund and filled out a complaints form.
She was not happy with one ride attendant who allegedly told her to “calm down” as it had “only been four and a half minutes”.
Ally also claimed the employee told her and her partner she was “making it worse” by panicking.
But the mom praised one member of staff for providing her with a refund and “making sure my babies were okay”.
She said her family’s weekend plans were disrupted following the incident.
Scooter Korek, Vice President of North American Midway Entertainment Services, blames a technical fault for the incident.
He said: “The right computer received a fault. What it does is when it finds something that it doesn’t like, it shuts it down.
“So, the ride was in the air, not in its landing position, for about 10-12 minutes.”
Scooter said that when the ride malfunctioned on Saturday, staff evacuated all riders in line with safety guidance.
Scooter, whose company is responsible for managing the ride at the Arkansas State Fair, reassured the public: “Any of my family members can go on any of our rides any day.
“That’s how good I feel about our programs, our safety programs, and the people who work for us to operate and take care of these rides.”
It wasn’t just Ally’s kids that were trapped on the X-Drive ride on Saturday[/caption]
