Disney Skyliner shutdown and evacuation - October 6 2019

[DuckTalesWooHoo1987]

This is what would and has driven me nuts on breakdowns. They could have simply said they were clearing an obstruction from the line (very vague but worded not to cause panic the "collision" would) and give an ETA or update every 15 minutes or so. Then disable the auto repeat message.

My thing is why can they not just have a speaker system like on rides where a CM communicates directly? I mean I know those are vague as well but still it would maybe give people some level of comfort knowing they're receiving communications from an actual person.

 

[monothingie]

Is it open today?

 

[danlb_2000]

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).

Evacuating the line posses it's own set of risks, so they have to balance the risk of leaving people in the cars against the risk of evacuating them.

 

[danlb_2000]

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

I have read that the London A/C system doesn't work very well. Also, A/C would likely not be of any help in an extended outage since they are powered by ultra-capacitors which charge quickly, but also discharge quickly so would not have enough capacity to power the A/C for an extended period of time without recharging.

 

[lentesta]

I love how quickly the facts get muddled. It was a $100 gift card each that the 2 passengers received. If that excites you enough to want to be stranded for hours in a heat box with others who might fill the hot air with the stench of barf or to listen to a friend or family member cry hysterically as they have a panic attack, then I have good news for you. There are these booths all over with the letters DVC on the front. If you ask them for a tour they will provide direct and air conditioned transportation to a comfortable hotel where you can take a brief tour and talk about real estate purchasing options for 90 minutes or less. Afterwards they will give you a Disney gift card of up to $200 and free ice cream.

I've heard from two families who said the initial gift card offer that night was followed up the next day with comp'd stays.

 

[HongKongFu]

I guess it's more amazing to me than the ugly old busses. Perhaps I should have used a better adjective. "Nice" perhaps

There is hope for you afterall; unlike say 4 other obstinates around here who are allergic to common sense.

 

[monothingie]

Evacuating the line posses it's own set of risks, so they have to balance the risk of leaving people in the cars against the risk of evacuating them.

Plan for the worse, hope for the best is usually the MO for a rescue operation. It genuinely seems like a total manual evacuation of the line would take a very long time because of the sheer size and expanse of the system. They were very lucky this happened at night and not at noon. The risk equation, response, and outcome would have been drastically different.

 

[monothingie]

I've heard from two families who said the initial gift card offer that night was followed up the next day with comp'd stays.

Makes me want ride the Skyliner even more now. Fingers crossed....

 

[HongKongFu]

Which university did you goto again?

Flawed use of an authority warrant. One doesn't need a degree to understand the dangers of degrees.

If it's 100 degrees inside a box for 3 hours your degree won't convince me things are OK

 

[SpoiledBlueMilk]

Just got back from WDW and I'm now reading these posts. I was on the Skyliner in the afternoon before the slow motion pileup happened. Loved it - good airflow in a 98 degree day - breezy actually. Fast, quiet, efficient and modern. Took the Epcot to Caribbean Beach to Hollywood Studios route. Unfortunate that the accident happened, but the hair pulling and hand wringing going on in this sub is pitiful. From the people laying into Disney for building the system to posts that could easily replace "gondola" with "titanic," the hot takes are all over the place.

 

[John park hopper]

In this age of cameras everywhere monitoring this and that does the Skyliner have cameras mounted on the support poles viewing 'the gondolas as they move in order to monitor any potential problems and pin point it immediately

 

[tissandtully]

What makes you say they will beef up staff and evac?

Cause the only real concern here was how long it took to evac.

 

[Heppenheimer]

Honest question, so I can interpret some of the replies (or at least, stop misinterpreting them). I have read references to "blue" and "yellow". Were these simply and literally the colors of the gondolas that collided, or are they code for certain lines, such as handicapped access?

 

[Bender123]

I've heard from two families who said the initial gift card offer that night was followed up the next day with comp'd stays.

Three hours in the gondola nets a free stay? Sign me up!

Honestly, that's not a bad recovery offer.

 

[tissandtully]

I've heard from two families who said the initial gift card offer that night was followed up the next day with comp'd stays.

Do you know if they had to sign any documents promising not to bring legal action?

 

[Epcot82Guy]

Honest question, so I can interpret some of the replies (or at least, stop misinterpreting them). I have read references to "blue" and "yellow". Were these simply and literally the colors of the gondolas that collided, or are they code for certain lines, such as handicapped access?

It's the gondolas themselves. I have never seen any color designations for the lines themselves. (And would be surprised if they did given that they use the gondola colors as designations within the system.) I would guess the lines are more likely to have numbers or letters (or just names).

 

[Lilofan]

Do you know if they had to sign any documents promising not to bring legal action?

Like the document the hospital makes you sign right before you go into surgery?

 

[kainsel]

Maybe some kind of beeping alarm could be added to the boxes that beeps continuously until the box is dealt with or swapped out by a cast member.

That way the tampering could be easily recognized at every station before boarding.

Are there red and green lights on the outside of the cabins? Could add a tamper switch on the box that causes the lights to flash in a certain pattern to let the ride operators know.

 

[tissandtully]

Like the document the hospital makes you sign right before you go into surgery?

Not sure of your point.

 

[matt9112]

Gondola systems work all over the world. Nothing about this is unique to Disney. Yes the climate is different but people rode on the Skyway for decades.

How many humans could be on the skyway at any one time? And those were completely open and would be almost no different than standing outside but with shade. Something guests do every day. Apples and oranges.

Both sides of this argument are starting to come off sounding rediculous. No people wont melt but yes it is unacceptable to leave people stuck up there for over three hours. No most people wont die but yes some elderly or young people could be put in a dangerous position. No air conditioning wouldnt matter (due to battery life) but yes they need to figure out a faster way to evac.

IMHO in an isolated incident like the one we seem to have seen they should move that car immediately (like they ended up doing) and get the line moving weither it be backwards out of necessity or forwards and evac that way. Even if the car for some reason cant be directly taken off the line it should be moved by hand with the speed of the line to a place where it can be stored in an emergency if this is simply the ADA loading zone etc. Lastly i think unbolting the cabin from its hook should be a last resort option that can be done well in advance of a 3 hour delay. My concern isnt what went wrong its brand new and it will be worked out. My concern is the awful evac scenario we saw.