Thorpe Park rollercoaster stalls on launch day
A new rollercoaster at Thorpe Park came to a stop halfway up a steep ascent on its first day in operation.
According to BBC reports, visitors were left stranded for several minutes while a loud speaker told them they were "perfectly safe".
The Surrey theme park launched the Swarm earlier that day. It is described as Europe’s tallest winged roller coaster and the park’s "most extreme ride to date".
Thorpe Park said the ride’s safety shutdown came into force after a small teething problem, but was up and running within minutes.
It’s not the first time the new £20 million attraction has hit the headlines for the wrong reasons.
Dummies were used to test the ride in January but returned back with limbs missing.
Last year the theme of the ride was criticised by the British Airline and Pilot Association as being tasteless.
The rollercoaster promises to take riders on a "death defying flight through apocalyptic devastation", including scenes of plane wreckage.
by Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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