Popular Isle of Wight theme park Blackgang Chine had to evacuate guests this afternoon (Monday) after its new ride, Shipwrecked, broke down mid-run.
The attraction’s ‘flying carpet’ style ride, which was acquired from another park elsewhere in the country over the winter season, came to an abrupt stop mid cycle leaving those aboard the ride hanging sideways in the air.
The incident happened at around 15:00 this afternoon and led to paramedics from the Isle of Wight Ambulance Service being called to the scene.
It’s understood 2 people have been taken to hospital.
UPDATE – A spokesperson for Vectis Ventures has said:
“Here at Blackgang Chine we experienced an incident with our Shipwrecked ride this afternoon (Monday 08/08/2022).
“Our team have quickly responded to the incident and all guests were quickly and safely evacuated.
“The safe performance of our rides is key to what we do. We have stringent safety control procedures in place that we were able to instantly deploy”.
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The park has been closed for the rest of the day.
UPDATE TUESDAY – Blackgang Chine has re-opened to the public this morning. However, it is understood the Shipwrecked ride will remain closed for the foreseeable.
I was in the queue at the time. One end of the ride crashed into the wood at the bottom with the other end up in the air. People had to be pulled off by bystanders. Very scary for some of the kids stuck in the air but it seemed nobody was seriously injured.
Who wrote this? . Leaving people sidewards ? No they were upright , the ride stays upright at all times.
Not this time it didn’t. I was there, although I didn’t see the accident itself the ride ended up at a steep angle, not upright at all.
Was definitely NOT upright. We were sitting at the side of the ride on a picnic bench. Was a loud bang/crack and the whole ride was at a steep angle. People holding on trying not to slip down. The poor young ride attendant had no clue what to do. It was all down to bystanders including my son-in-law and nephew that got the people off the ride. Just glad that no one was seriously hurt
The photo shows upright,my sidewise would be 90° . It’s just a little slanted.
Much more than a little, in no way was anyone on that ride “upright” at the end, the whole thing collapsed.
Perhaps they should use the floating bridge, that’s a Shipwrecked ride…
LMAO good one,
A ride from a mainland theme park which was on its last leg acquired by and island theme park breaks down… who saw THAT coming.
Wightlink wrecked My holiday ( with extortionate pricing) long before this ride. Seriously though, I hope they all got off OK.
I assume the HSE will be taking an interest in it’s age, installation and in particularly it’s maintenence schedule.
Wow that must have been scary i don’t think!!
Buying second hand some times doesn’t pay especially where safety is concerned
I’d imagine whoever took the decision to get rid of the ride did so after some consideration of wear and tear etc etc.
Hope they’ve still got the receipt. They’ll need it for the warranty
I noticed last week that when they had a few people on the ride they filled up seats on one side or the other. They didn’t fill it from the middle. As a result the weight was not balanced and there was always a slight lilt.
I don’t know if there was a particular reason for this but it could be that uneven distribution put unnecessary stress on parts of the machinery.
We were also there on Monday morning. Glad we stuck to the other rides and walked right past the Wreck.
Being the island its lucky it didn’t end up on its roof if it had one lol