Disney Skyliner shutdown and evacuation - October 6 2019

[Monorail_Orange]

Did monorails collide two weeks after they debuted?

No, but in DL, Bob Gurr himself snapped every single drive axle the first time they tried to pull Mark I Red out of the barn. Not to mention all they other problems they had, like literally melting all the resistors (burning parts falling off the train into and igniting the foliage below)...but let's not let facts get in the way.

 

[LSLS]

Man the conversation here has steered such a weird direction. I highly doubt people will die in these things if left for hours. What's more interesting to me is that the company weighed the options of evacuation and concluded that leaving people in them for 3+hours and then giving them a park pass and a gift card was an acceptable risk. Maybe I'm naive to think back in the day anything that would put people in such an uncomfortable situation was not an acceptable risk (and that they would have WAY more evacuation options).

 

[lazyboy97o]

I just checked, and EPCOT Standard 5-1 Elevators, Dumbwaiters, Escalators, Moving Walks, Manlifts and Transporting Assemblies does include "aerial passenger tramways*". Section 5-1.201.3 Reporting/Inspections Following Accidents or Incidents requires inspection and documentation by the District and approval for services to resume. A state agency may also claim some jurisdiction but at the minimum they are grouped with elevators and overseen by the Improvement District.

*The definition of Aerial Passenger Tramway in EPCOT Standard 5-13.101.3 does include the Skyliner.

 

[flynnibus]

I just checked, and EPCOT Standard 5-1 Elevators, Dumbwaiters, Escalators, Moving Walks, Manlifts and Transporting Assemblies does include "aerial passenger tramways*". Section 5-1.201.3 Reporting/Inspections Following Accidents or Incidents requires inspection and documentation by the District and approval for services to resume. A state agency may also claim some jurisdiction but at the minimum they are grouped with elevators and overseen by the Improvement District.

*The definition of Aerial Passenger Tramway in EPCOT Standard 5-13.101.3 does include the Skyliner.

But a detachable gondola is not an 'aerial tramway'

 

[Hawg G]

Stationary gondolas temperatures are of a concern within the company should this happen during the daytime. It was a concern noted a few years back.

If static for any amount of time internal temperatures are expected to rise beyond reasonable comfort.

Tell that to Flynnibus. He thinks they are perfect insulators.

 

[tissandtully]

I just checked, and EPCOT Standard 5-1 Elevators, Dumbwaiters, Escalators, Moving Walks, Manlifts and Transporting Assemblies does include "aerial passenger tramways*". Section 5-1.201.3 Reporting/Inspections Following Accidents or Incidents requires inspection and documentation by the District and approval for services to resume. A state agency may also claim some jurisdiction but at the minimum they are grouped with elevators and overseen by the Improvement District.

*The definition of Aerial Passenger Tramway in EPCOT Standard 5-13.101.3 does include the Skyliner.

So it will reopen once it gets inspected. Shouldn’t be too long. They will beef up evac lifts and staffing, and all will be well. Looking forward to it being back open.

 

[OSX]

I know it’s been said a thousand times before but....they should’ve just added a new monorail fleet instead of death buckets

 

[Monorail_Orange]

Kudos to both @flynnibus and @lazyboy97o for trying to "hold back the night" - the sheer ignorance and closed-mindedness being displayed by some posters (especially the inordinate rash of new accounts) on this thread.

 

[OSX]

Actually, I kind-of wish I had been one of those stuck. I know, I'm a weirdo...

You could’ve had time to look into the emergency kits!

 

[flynnibus]

Tell that to Flynnibus. He thinks they are perfect insulators.

Which university did you goto again?

 

[AEfx]

Man the conversation here has steered such a weird direction. I highly doubt people will die in these things if left for hours. What's more interesting to me is that the company weighed the options of evacuation and concluded that leaving people in them for 3+hours and then giving them a park pass and a gift card was an acceptable risk. Maybe I'm naive to think back in the day anything that would put people in such an uncomfortable situation was not an acceptable risk (and that they would have WAY more evacuation options).

That's kind of the thing - evac of these things is ALWAYS going to be a spectacle. It doesn't matter how much they "streamline" the process, they still are going to be a crane going up to bring down people who are hanging on a wire 100 feet in the air. All outside, for everyone to see and record.

To be honest, the part that I find most worrying about this is the fact that there isn't some safety mechanism to keep the cars from coming into contact with each other. They are very lucky that there weren't more people in these and that no one was in the trajectory of the broken plexi-glass.

 

[Disneyfanman]

I was there last week but didn’t get a chance to ride the Skyliner. I would have if I had the opportunity. This accident/stoppage/whatever it is has scared the heck out of me. I’m sure I’m not alone. They are going to have to demonstrate a long stretch of problem free ops before I get on the thing. “The car failed to properly attach to the tow rope”??? Doesn’t that freak out anybody else? Six days after they opened it? The right thing was to shut it down and dig in. The whole thing. I’m glad they did but wow. What if it was 95 degrees? What if there was a storm? The system broke and Disney was not prepared. They were LUCKY.

 

[Hawg G]

Martin did say a couple of pages earlier that Disney has internal concerns about the rising heat levels inside the gondolas if they are stopped on a hot day. It's possible that despite concerns about dangerous heat, the likelihood of it happening was small enough that it wasn't worth spending the money to mitigate. That's obviously just speculation, though, and businesses make those kinds of determinations regularly. There's no malice involved.

Whoever was involved in such a decision is a moron.

Had it been 97 outside when this happened, there would have been multiple injuries, perhaps a fatality. Highest possible risk. And that risk damn sure better have been discussed. If “death of an infant” wasn’t discussed in the HAZOP, Disney is a horrible company. Perhaps they decided the frequency of that risk was very low. However, Probability suggests that at least 20% of the operation time would be at temperatures that could lead to injuries/fatality.

Perhaps they decided that was a one in 100 years occurrence, which would be absolute lunacy. But even then, they clearly do not have enough layers of protection to mitigate the problem quickly. So, I don’t understand how they accepted the risk and probability of this occurrence, and believed they could deal with it.

People just point to the Singapore gondola system near Universal Studios. However, Singapore’s legal system is in a whole different universe than the United States’. Plus, I believe it is a simple straight line, although it is MUCH higher, and retrieval of people from the gondolas is likely not even possible without helicopters.

The London system has air conditioning, and London is just a tad cooler than Florida.

 

[Victor Kelly]

They were very lucky. This was a dress rehersal for hopefully something that never happens again. There should be specific cast members cross trained in evacuations to help assist rescue workers.

Also I am given to understand the gandolas are clamped onto the cable at departure and unclamped at arrival. So they will not move on the cable and smash into each other. There is a separate system inside each station that moves the gandolas separate from the main cable.

 

[ThatMouse]

"experienced an unexpected downtime" seems a little light on information for those thinking about taking the Skyline in the future or choosing a resort for the Skyline. I'm guessing the Mom's Panel isn't going to post a video on "things to do while you wait to be evacuated."

 

[Hawg G]

Height does not hinder the stack effect - it actually improves it as does the temperature gradient.

You claimed it helps, I claimed it doesn't. Now you are thinking you are teaching me higher stacks give better effects? Thanks for that, Captain Obvious. Point is, these gondolas aren't being significantly cooled from Chimney Effect. Heck, there is probably only 5 or 6 feet between the top of the "in" and bottom of the "out". Swinging from a mild breeze would be more significant.

 

[Smooth]

 

[Orangeanna]

I am glad that happened at night in October. I think it was a good trial for future issues. A good warning too. Can anyone say if, and I know this is a gross question, if it smelled bad in the cabins? People are sweaty, diapers may be dirty. Is there any way to dispose of the body waste bags? I know of at least one passenger who threw up last night. Im not sure if i could take a stuffy, smelly cabin for long without getting sick myself.

 

[DuckTalesWooHoo1987]

Here's what I can say about the heat and being in one of these for that long. I'm a UPS man and we don't have air conditioners in our package cars and in the summer when we are in the back looking for packages it is absolutely BRUTALLY hot. Well over 100 degrees in the back. In just a few minutes you will be sweating profusely and UPS stresses CONSTANTLY for us to "HYDRATE! HYDRATE! HYDRATE!" So I'm sure it would be a very dangerous situation to get stuck in this in the heat of the day and even if you had the windows open on it with the doors closed and no breeze it would be absolutely dangerously hot in there and especially for little kids. I'm sure they can't do it but I would just like to know that if something happens they could just put the line in reverse and bring everybody back to their original destination.

 

[Victor Kelly]

I am glad that happened at night in October. I think it was a good trial for future issues. A good warning too. Can anyone say if, and I know this is a gross question, if it smelled bad in the cabins? People are sweaty, diapers may be dirty. Is there any way to dispose of the body waste bags? I know of at least one passenger who threw up last night. Im not sure if i could take a stuffy, smelly cabin for long without getting sick myself.

They probably smelled just like a monorail. And I am sure people soiled the cabs i. One way or another.