"Seatbelt Fail"

GeneralKnowledge

GeneralKnowledge

Well-Known Member
Monorail_Orange said:
FWIW, I had the opportunity to ride DHS's Tower back when they were still using lap bars for most of the riders. For reasons I'm not at liberty to share :animwink: the lap bar wasn't securely fastened. It was pulled down just enough to satisfy the ride sensors. It was an interesting feeling, but during the negative G's, the most that happened was we found ourselves standing instead of sitting. In our picture, all you could see of our back row was from the necks down. We didn't wait around to get a copy,either, we were amazed that it made it to the video screen.

Anyways, my point is the picture from the OP is absolutely photoshopped. The ride doesn't create enough negative G's to pull you out of your seat and throw you against the ceiling even if you are unrestrained.
Click to expand...

For the record, If you pull out excess seatbelt as you approach your seat, then slide it under you and sit on it while buckling the latch, you can have tons of excess seatbelt. This will allow you to float in the drop shaft. If you tuck your legs up a bit as you fall, you can float up to 2 feet or so out of your seat. I've done this about 50 or so times riding the tower at the studios. I remained seated with a tight belt during one ride and my friend next to me had a loose belt... He floated up around my shoulders. You have to be careful though, it's easy to get caught... And mildly dangerous if done improperly.

I just wanted to go on record saying yes you can beat the seatbelt without damaging it and yes you can float out of your seat.
 
PurpleDragon

PurpleDragon

Well-Known Member
From what I can tell this does not look photoshopped. Its a picture taken of a monitor, I'm guessing with a cameraphone. It looks more like he jumped up and grabbed the top of the ride vehicle just as the image was taken, notice the person to his left grabbing his shirt as if they were trying to pull him down. My guess is the CM watching the monitors was slow on the uptake and allowed the image to hit the monitors prior to removing it, hence the photo.

I wouldn't doubt it if these guys were promptly removed from the park as they exited the attraction. Simply because something does not seem logical does not mean its photoshopped. These guys probably planned this out and may have even had someone sitting at the screens to take the picture since they knew it would be removed rather quickly once the CMs caught on. It appears as though this was done with a lapbar, because there is another guy in the same row standing up, so I'm guessing they pulled the lapbar down far enough to trigger the sensor and still allow freedom of movement. This is nothing more than a couple of idiots doing a stupid stunt for a laugh and unknowingly putting others in danger.
 
Master Gracey 5

Master Gracey 5

Active Member
Anybody else notice that the guy two seats over to the "flying" person is also standing up? There are too many things wrong in this picture to be real, and also too many to be photoshopped. I'm beginning to think this was staged somehow.
 
PurpleDragon

PurpleDragon

Well-Known Member
Master Gracey 5 said:
Anybody else notice that the guy two seats over to the "flying" person is also standing up? There are too many things wrong in this picture to be real, and also too many to be photoshopped. I'm beginning to think this was staged somehow.
Click to expand...

Yes I think the 4 people in the back right row(left in the image) were working together, they pulled they lapbar down far enough to appease the sensor and still allow full freedom of movement. I think they had some other friends ride before them and hang out at the screens to get a picture of the image before it got removed. So when the time came for the picture to be taken the one guy jumped up and grabbed the top of the ride vehicle and another one stood up.
 
Tom Morrow

Tom Morrow

Well-Known Member
Apparently it is indeed real:
http://gostbrand.com/blog/?p=2100

The guy is not floating, since the picture is not taken at a spot where he would be in enough freefall to float. Rather, he managed to get out of his seatbelt and was hanging onto the ceiling.
DisRussFIT said:
For the record, If you pull out excess seatbelt as you approach your seat, then slide it under you and sit on it while buckling the latch, you can have tons of excess seatbelt. This will allow you to float in the drop shaft. If you tuck your legs up a bit as you fall, you can float up to 2 feet or so out of your seat. I've done this about 50 or so times riding the tower at the studios. I remained seated with a tight belt during one ride and my friend next to me had a loose belt... He floated up around my shoulders. You have to be careful though, it's easy to get caught... And mildly dangerous if done improperly.

I just wanted to go on record saying yes you can beat the seatbelt without damaging it and yes you can float out of your seat.
Click to expand...
For the record, don't do this, ever.
 
joel_maxwell

joel_maxwell

Permanent Resident of EPCOT
Any chance the photo was taken on load as one of the last persons walking in took it? I just cant imagine it is real with the safety features that are in place.
 
jugglingfanatic

jugglingfanatic

Member
I'm not going to say this is fake or real, but some things I did notice:

The shadows are all at different angels. Look at the 'floating' person's shadow, then look at the shadow of the man in the front row on his side, then look at the woman on the other side.

Also, it looks like the man with 'JAWS' on his shirt doesn't have a lap bar OR seat belt. I think it would be pretty noticeable in this shot, considering how much of his lap you can see.

Again, I don't want to say this is real or fake, but I'm leaning towards staged.
 
PurpleDragon

PurpleDragon

Well-Known Member
jugglingfanatic said:
I'm not going to say this is fake or real, but some things I did notice:

The shadows are all at different angels. Look at the 'floating' person's shadow, then look at the shadow of the man in the front row on his side, then look at the woman on the other side.
Click to expand...
Are you turning your head sideways while looking at the image? The shadows all correspond with the dual strobe flashes on each side of the camera. They are consistent.

jugglingfanatic said:
Also, it looks like the man with 'JAWS' on his shirt doesn't have a lap bar OR seat belt. I think it would be pretty noticeable in this shot, considering how much of his lap you can see.
Click to expand...
The man with the Jaws shirt more than likely has on a lapbelt, I'm sure it just blends in with the dark color of his shirt. You're not going to be able to differentiate colors that well on a photo of a computer screen.

Also if you look you can see that the guy standing in the middle is holding onto the lapbelt with his right hand.
 
I

imagineergurl

Member
This picture is nothing but real. The two guys in the back clearly just held the slack on the belts during load. As long as they buckled, a monitor lights up saying they're good to go. Row six is also the worst to check. Clearly the guy either sat on his belt or had enough slack to stand up and grab onto the grating on the ceiling. If a guest is persistent enough to hold their belt, no matter how unsafe, even the more careful cast could miss it. Yeah we catch the majority but we won't see everything.
Yes there are cast in tower control but they may have been watching a different monitor, making a phone call, spieling to the queue etc.

Point being, not photoshopped. And don't try to do this. Ever. Or your elevator will be stopped and you will be escorted out.
 
THECARISMINE

THECARISMINE

Active Member
I've kinda done this... I know I'm stupid blah blah blah, but I was 16. For the record I didn't float that high...
Don't do it though, you wouldn't be able to anyway they check your belt now. I know someone who was kicked out for attempting it, end of the same trip actually, they caught him before it started and they kicked him off the ride. He went on what he called the "Mall elevator"

To be clear, I do not support stupidity. (Anymore) :eek:
 
jugglingfanatic

jugglingfanatic

Member
PurpleDragon said:
The man with the Jaws shirt more than likely has on a lapbelt, I'm sure it just blends in with the dark color of his shirt. You're not going to be able to differentiate colors that well on a photo of a computer screen.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I thought the whole belt was yellow, forgetting it is only a little pull tab that is yellow.

PurpleDragon said:
Are you turning your head sideways while looking at the image? The shadows all correspond with the dual strobe flashes on each side of the camera. They are consistent.
Click to expand...

I do understand they correspond with the dual strobe flashes, but the varying darkness and lightness of the shadows and depth of field (on both sides) seems a little off to me. I guess what I'm trying to say if the amount of varying shadows should not be as much if it were taken with the large strobes at the top of the drop - sorry, it is hard for me to explain what I'm seeing.
 

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