Disney Skyliner shutdown and evacuation - October 6 2019

[Lilofan]

Here’s what I can confirm after speaking with a close source:

Shortly after the Skyliner stopped due to the incident at the station, a guest or someone else onboard with them in one of the vehicles called 911. The guest was patched through to Reedy Creek as they were claustrophobic, hyperventilating, and had a history of seizures in the past. The maintenance team that was dispatched to assess what happened was stopped from doing any work until the guest was emergency evacuated as a result of emergency services in the ride path. Reedy Creek had major challenges locating the specific Guest since the vehicle identification number is only printed on the side of each cabin - not on the bottom. The vehicle itself was in a position that obstructed the view of the number as well as the low light conditions. Reportedly the operators also do not have a system in place to determine how many guests are onboard or if the vehicle is occupied at all.

As a result of the delayed evacuation, other guests on board were overloading the emergency call button as well as the 911 operator if they had cell phones. My source is unsure how many other vehicles were evacuated by Reedy Creek, but I’m sure that each minute they were up there and seen doing so elicited more responses from other guests that may not have necessarily required it. People who were in no physical danger - just the many who were exhausted, hot, scared, hungry, needed a restroom, and some who did not speak English.

Thanks for the update. Disney will definitely look into many areas where they were lacking in and what they did well at and how can they do it better the next time. Guests that don't speak English is an issue. I have seen in my annual visits to Disney at times cast members looking for help in a matter involving a guest, - "Does anyone speak Portugese, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin,?? " etc.. I have helped out fellow guests with my Spanish to help out in their needs. Calling 911 which some other forum member suggested earlier is easier said than done. Would the Disney operator speak another language other than English and maybe Spanish? Believe it or not, not everyone has a cell phone which includes guests from another country. The Disney operator and the Reedy Creek 911 operator being overridden with calls is surely possible if many guests or bystanders try to call at the same time. However your source is a very detailed account from someone close to the action.

 

[MonorailCoral]

Calling 911 which some other forum member suggested earlier is easier said than done. Would the Disney operator speak another language other than English and maybe Spanish? Believe it or not, not everyone has a cell phone which includes guests from another country.

Assuming that Reedy Creek's 911/interphone call system functions similarly to those around the country, a 24-hour interpreter service can be quickly patched through to the call. It is probably likely that the in-gondola emergency callbox functions like that found in most elevators: It rings right into the local 911 system just like a "regular" 911 call, which would have patching/transferring capability, etc as necessary, to include an interpreter service.

 

[GhostHost1000]

So using your logic, building the whole Skyliner system was cheaper than running extra buses

No. It was the cheapest form of “new” transportation to build.

 

[TrojanUSC]

Assuming that Reedy Creek's 911/interphone call system functions similarly to those around the country, a 24-hour interpreter service can be quickly patched through to the call. It is probably likely that the in-gondola emergency callbox functions like that found in most elevators: It rings right into the local 911 system just like a "regular" 911 call, which would have patching/transferring capability, etc as necessary, to include an interpreter service.

The anecdotal evidence from people involved on twitter says that the emergency call feature failed in a number of cases, once multiple gondolas started using the feature.

Also, it sounds like there needs to be a better communication system. I'm assuming the speakers in the gondolas allow from live spiels, but if not, this is a design flaw. It could likely save a lot of panic attacks from occurring if the CMs are keeping the guests updated in real time or at least assuring them they are working on the problems. This is SOP on many attractions, but from the guests who experienced it last night, it sounds like they just kept hearing the same pre-recorded announcement over and over.

 

[HoldenC]

The anecdotal evidence from people involved on twitter says that the emergency call feature failed in a number of cases, once multiple gondolas started using the feature.

Also, it sounds like there needs to be a better communication system. I'm assuming the speakers in the gondolas allow from live spiels, but if not, this is a design flaw. It could likely save a lot of panic attacks from occurring if the CMs are keeping the guests updated in real time or at least assuring them they are working on the problems. This is SOP on many attractions, but from the guests who experienced it last night, it sounds like they just kept hearing the same pre-recorded announcement over and over.

There are live spiel capabilities in the cabins.

 

[LSLS]

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.

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

 

[danv3]

Moving again this morning on EPCOT line at what seems to be normal speed.

 

[mm121]

The Orlando Sentinal had a statement from Reedy Creek referencing LE providing mutual aid, since there was no reference to other FDs being deployed, I assume no other FDs deployed.
I would hope that if this were a mid day summer incident and they were unable to clear the line that the resources deployed through mutual aid would have been far greater.

Reedy Creek FD’s stated they evacuated 6 cabins.
Well, that explains part of the long delay. I wonder how long it took to get the stuck teal/blue cabin moved out of the way after the people who were needed to be at the Riviera station managed to get there? Or where they there, but couldn’t do anything because Reedy Creek was searching for someone to rescue in one of a hundred plus gondolas?
I’ve only seen photos of one woman being wheeled away in a stretcher, I assume that is the panic attack/seizure lady that they spent all of that time searching for?
Going forward perhaps it would be better to let the people who need to get to the station get to the station, or if they are there at least get an ETA of how long before they can get the system moving. Once that’s known, then the decision can be made whether you should spend vast amounts of time trying to rescue one person thus delaying the safe evacuation of hundreds or more.
So I see three issues:
What caused the crash?
Possibly poor decision making in how to handle recovery, with the focus on one passenger unnecessarily delaying deploying the quickest evacuation method?
Tampering with the rescue kits - maybe a friendly legislator can sponsor a law to up the consequences for that?

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.

 

[mm121]

So using your logic, building the whole Skyliner system was cheaper than running extra buses

Over the course of the next 30 years the skyliner will definitely incur cost savings.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Purdue. And they would have taken off 5 points for writing "goto".

Plus, I have over a decade of pretty serious HAZOP/LOPA experience for multi-billion dollar chemical plants.

I know a thing or two about risk assessment and analysis, and IMHO, Disney did a poor job of it. Day 6, and they have a shutdown that takes 3 hours to fix. I doubt they even considered a 3 hour shutdown in any analysis, because barring an absolutely catastrophic failure, there should be ways to get the cable moving again WELL within 3 hours. What happened yesterday should have NEVER caused that long of a shutdown. Because what happened yesterday WILL happen again. Disney dodged a MASSIVE bullet. If heads aren't rolling at 8 am tomorrow, I question the capabilities of Imagineering and Disney.

Nobody was unaware that prolonged stoppages can happen. They have happened and only someone who doesn’t know anything about such a system would think otherwise.

Which is likely why most skyrides at amusement parks use good 'ole reliable gravity to feed cars on to the cable.

Von Roll 101s haven’t been a standard in decades.

Anyone really involved in such work should look at this and really wonder about the design of the system. Plus, the baffling issue where such a minor issue brought down the line for 3 hours. Disney decided to do VERY risky gondola rescues. I don't understand why the cable couldn't have still been moved, and gondolas moved to a storage spur. If a simple motor failure leads to this, WOW, this system was built cheaply.

This was a collision. It is not something that can just have the line restart because you don’t know if it is going to just keep happening. It also requires approval of Reedy Creek to resume any operations. Nobody who does the sort of work you claim would suggest to immediate resume operations after an apparent mechanical failure.

Is there only one storage space on the whole line that all cars MUST make it back to? And the cars can't be manually removed in a station to clear room to empty the incoming cable?

If you weren’t just ignorantly spouting off you would know the answer.

 

[Patcheslee]

The anecdotal evidence from people involved on twitter says that the emergency call feature failed in a number of cases, once multiple gondolas started using the feature.

Also, it sounds like there needs to be a better communication system. I'm assuming the speakers in the gondolas allow from live spiels, but if not, this is a design flaw. It could likely save a lot of panic attacks from occurring if the CMs are keeping the guests updated in real time or at least assuring them they are working on the problems. This is SOP on many attractions, but from the guests who experienced it last night, it sounds like they just kept hearing the same pre-recorded announcement over and over.

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.

 

[GhostHost1000]

Moving again this morning on EPCOT line at what seems to be normal speed.

with guests?

 

[Minthorne]

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.

so when you are stuck up there for three hours you have the constant beep to keep you company!

 

[VaderTron]

I was just talking to my friend the other day about it. 3 hours in a gondola? Sign me up.

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.

 

[RustySpork]

so when you are stuck up there for three hours you have the constant beep to keep you company!

I think strobe lights would be better suited for the glowstick and water rations. If they have a way to connect their phone to the cabin speaker, DANCE PARTY!

Now just $99 per guest.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Disney has been operating the monorails and buses for a long time so they are likely comfortable making a quick judgement if a problem is isolated or a bigger concern. The Skyliner is a new system for Disney and this is an unusual failure so it made sense to shut the other lines down until the exact cause of the problem was understood and mitigation steps put in place.

What I'm saying is that it may be obvious what the problem was and not worthy of stopping everything. If they didn't know what happened or why then they should have shut it down. There are many conclusions those of us that aren't there can jump too. It isn't absolutely necessary to just assume that it was a mechanical failure. The fatal Monorail accident was a human mistake and everyone knew it.

 

[HongKongFu]

Choice is typically about comfort. Missing from this 'choice' answer is the fact that the overwhelming majority DIDN'T NEED TO EXERCISE THE CHOICE

I'm not done with your clumsy analogy of queuing for a FoP in a blazing Florida sun for 3+ hours to hanging around in a gondola.

Those in the FoP queue presumably meet the absolute minimum health requirements(you know the drill. warning: you should be in good health....). Babies, many elders, those with respitory concerns aren't in the queue.

They are, however, on the 'clothesline' without a choice to exit the cabin when things heat up.

 

[DuckTalesWooHoo1987]

Someone over at the DIS just shared their experience which included someone in their gondola having a panic attack, hyperventilating, etc. They pressed the emergency button and received a generic reply that they were working to resolve the situation (which cut off mid-sentence because there were some speaker problems) and were never contacted directly again.

That is absolutely terrible. I don't really have a need for these anyways but I highly doubt I'll be riding them. I'm a fast walker and I'm fine with the walk from HS to BW or BW to EPCOT and we'll never be staying at Pop or AOA and would only spend a single night at Riviera in case of an emergency with our points or something. It just seems like for me, personally, that if something went wrong it would be a really lame experience. I'm glad for those that do enjoy riding them though.

 

[DuckTalesWooHoo1987]

Yesterday I thought about my dad regarding this scenario, he's over 70 years old and has become claustrophobic too. He also has high blood pressure and gets very anxious about the unexpected. I noticed this changes in him last time we visited WDW.
If this happened to us, I'd be very worried about him.

It's ironic to me that you talk about noticing the changes at Disneyworld because back in May I was on Aerosmith and it temporarily broke down and INSTANTLY and I mean right that very second I got SUUUUUPER claustrophobic feeling and was literally trying to get myself out because of such a feeling of panic. My little boy was with me and so I didn't panic on the outside because I didn't want to scare him but I was really scared on the inside. The ride was only down for maybe 2 min but it seemed like an eternity. Then last month I had an abscessed tooth and had a severe infection and had to get a root canal that took 2 trips to finish. Well I made it through the first stage but on the second stage I wound up feeling claustrophobic and had a panic attack because of it and my blood pressure shot up big time and I wound up having to go to the Dr because of it. So as a result I now have to have the tooth pulled because I couldn't finish the root canal from panic and have to be put to sleep and we wound up having to find a sedation dentist because I just can't handle the being held down and all that stuff. It's a terrible feeling and I would feel awful for your dad.

 

[Kram Sacul]

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.

But can’t I do both the DVC thing and the Gondola sweat box experience? I’m serious. Dead serious. Try me.