Disney Skyliner Accident

[KYMickey]

Since Disney (Reedy Creek Fire Department) only has a couple of Tower Ladders capable of reaching the gondolas of anyone know if they can/have call in mutual aid for additional equipment to aid in evacuations? Yes I departments may not have directly trained for this kind of evacuation but it certainly not significantly different than many things a doing day-to-day work.

 

[NWOhiogal]

I don't think this is the problem because Gondolas can't be taken off-line at the Riviera station! This is the only station that doesn't have the secondary loop.

Ah, OK. I'm wrong, then, thanks for the info. Although that kind of makes it worse because that suggests the car just hopped the track on its own. Impossible to predict and therefore a lot more difficult to correct. Yikes.

 

[GrnMtnMan]

I'm not sure. I've been told that a sensor went bad and caused an incoming gondola to not slow down. But that is one answer out of a thousand. I was also thinking why they couldn't just take the damaged cars off the line but I remembered this is at Rivera and the storage is at CBR so that makes things harder.

my 1000 mile away analysis from an internet picture:

A gondola bound for Epcot did not properly depart the Riviera station, and the cabins behind it, which are moving quite slowly in the Rivera station, did not stop when the blue gondola failed to attach to the transport cable.

Which is to say it doesn't have anything to do with the deceleration of the cabins as the descend into stations.

The system used in the Rivera station is not a typical of most detachable gondola systems. In most skiing applications of gondolas, the cabins detach the line, then ride a rail around in a loop to do a return trip. In the Rivera station, the gondolas are on a transfer system that moves them to one loop system to another. Maybe this accident is on part of the system that is fairly rare or completely unique to Disney, and the manufacturer does not have as much safety experience with it.

But as I said, I’ve only seen YouTube videos and this picture, so I could be way off base. But I’m pretty sure the photo we’re seeing with cabins collided is where the cabins leave Rivera for Epcot.

 

[BaymaxFan78]

Wouldn't it be awkward letting it out in a waste bag while suspended in the air in a glass box with 9 other people, potentially random strangers, watching you?

 

[only hope]

They said a full system evac should take 3.5 hrs or something like that. So if half of the system is still running why is a partial evac taking so long? Guess that part may have needed more testing/fine tuning.

3.5 hour evacuation time in the hot weather we have literally half the year or more would result in some people (the very old and young etc) dying from the heat. They have to figure something else out. This is taking entirely too long.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

Should we take bets on what the compensation will be???

I'm guessing a Living with the Land FP and a $2 coupon for a discount on a Mickey bar

 

[jsbowl16]

Should we take bets on what the compensation will be???

Probably a free ride on the new fangled gondola system and a tube of desitin to help the diaper rash. Oh wait......

 

[GrnMtnMan]

This photo:

 

[Frank4202]

What’s disappointing to me is the lack of communication from Disney to the trapped guests. Intercoms still playing an automated message. What a joke.

This company can’t build a proper website. What makes you think they can build a functioning Skyliner?

 

[amcc]

I wonder how they will get anyone off with an ecv? Fortunate, to never have been in a situation such as this. Can a fire truck bucket even hold an ecv? Again, I hope and pray people get off safely!!

Before it opened, in discussions here on the Dis, the consensus from others familiar with these types of systems was that the system had redundancies to get the gondolas back into the station in the case of a failure and that evacs such as these were a last resort. I really hope that there are no ECV on there - it has to be terrifying to the users.

 

[kboo]

One of the FB groups has posts saying they've been stuck for 2.5 hours already.

I hope everyone gets out safely, and soon.

 

[snappy]

Wouldn't it be awkward letting it out in a waste bag while suspended in the air in a glass box with 9 other people, potentially random strangers, watching you?

Awkward is the ultimate understatement.

 

[evlaina]

Wow. We rode the Skyliner several times since it opened on Sunday. We got stuck a few times, but for just minutes. I really feel for the people stuck, I can’t imagine being in one with a child, and how scared they must be. Really hope no one is seriously injured.

How embarrassing for Disney just 6 days in.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

Is there some sort of manual override where they can manually pull the gondolas to a station?

 

[Networth]

Hope everyone gets off safe. Say what you will but after seeing this debacle I won’t be riding them, especially from April to November and I have ridden ski lifts since I was a kid.

Poor transportation choice given the demographics and climate.

 

[ShayBells]

I cannot imagine being stuck for over three hours. I told my family it being stuck was inevitable and I will never get on it cause I’m claustrophobic and afraid of heights. I never imagined it would be stuck for this long though and need emergency response. I guess I should have. The monorail has been stuck for longer with same evacuation. My heart goes out to those people. And as for that emergency kit I saw pictures of. That little bag of water per person is a joke.

 

[Spridell]

This a massive black eye for the gondola system. I would expect when all said and done there will be lawsuits and all that good stuff.

If you look around on Twitter right now very negative feedback going on.

Lets just get everyone off ASAP and worry about all the logistics later.

 

[BaymaxFan78]

When I was riding through the turn station between Riviera and EPCOT, I noticed that they had a few scissor lifts parked beneath it. I suppose those could be used to evacuate from lower points on the line. Also, worse comes to worse, if they run out of RCID bucket trucks they could always use those bucket lifts from the construction sites nearby (looking at you france pavilion)

 

[Irish_Mike]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1180672234433761280

Who's gonna tell him?

 

[KayaWildfire]

Hope everyone is evacuated quickly. I did see on Twitter that they closed the HS line as well tonight.