Talk about a horrifying moment. A teenage girl somehow got stuck dangling from a gondola 25 feet off the ground at Six Flags Great Escape on Saturday, but the frightening scene had a merciful ending as the girl ultimately fell from the ride into the arms of her fellow park-goers.
The girl’s identity has not been released, but according to Time, she’s just 14 years old. Video taken during the incident doesn’t show how she got stuck dangling out of the gondola at the amusement park in Queensbury, New York, but an onlooker watching the incident unfold can be heard yelling that “her neck is stuck.” There’s a totally understandable amount of panic and urgency in the crowd, but some of them called out with words of calm and encouragement too, promising the girl that she’d be safe if she dropped.
“We’ll catch you, honey,” a voice could be heard yelling. And catch her they did, keeping her from crashing into the ground and narrowly avoiding a truly terrible accident.
https://www.facebook.com/loren.lent/videos/10209585306216373/
The video was posted by Facebook user Loren Lent, who thanked the people who caught the girl, as well as a man who climbed a nearby tree to move the branches that were in her way.
Here’s another view.
The girl was reportedly taken to a nearby hospital, and luckily, she has no serious injuries. The official website for the park describes the Sky Ride as follows:
You’ll fly right under Boomerang, but you’ll be safe and sound in your peacefully drifting sky chassis. Sometimes it’s more fun to coast. What’s the rush? This is a mellow-paced ride with an awesome view, not to mention a sneaky way to make a game plan for hitting the rest of the day’s rides. Just take note of what to hit when you land back down to the ground.
It’s entirely unclear how the incident occurred, as local authorities reportedly inspected the ride with park employees and found it in full working order. At the time of this writing, the ride is listed as “temporarily closed.”