Nearly two dozen thrill seekers at Knott’s Berry Farm got more excitement than they bargained for when a six-story thrill ride that looks like a flying blender stopped working and left them stranded in the air for more than two hours while crews worked to rescue them.
The Sol Spin ride experienced technical difficulties and stopped mid-cycle at 2 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 18 with 22 riders on board, according to Knott’s Berry Farm officials.
A person is taken out of Knott’s Berry Farm on a gurney after 22 people were stuck on the Sol Spin ride for two hours in Buena Park, CA, on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
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All riders were safely evacuated by 4:30 p.m., park officials said. Orange County Fire Authority rescue personnel were on hand as a precautionary measure.
Two female riders were transported to the hospital for further evaluation out of an abundance of caution, a Knott’s official said.
Four local television news helicopters circled over the Buena Park theme park to document the incident.
The 65-foot-tall ride Sol Spin ride manufactured by Netherlands-based Mondial Rides opened in 2017.
The ride spins in three directions, sending riders flipping head-over-heels as their gondola whirls like a propeller blade and a support arm rotates like a second hand on a malfunctioning clock.
Knott’s gave Sol Spin its most intense thrill level rating: Double Black Diamond.
On the carnival midway, traveling versions of these types of spinning, twisting and whirling attractions are known in carnie-speak as bucket rides because they tend to induce vomiting. Ride operators keep a five-gallon bucket of water handy to wash off the seats.
In the amusement park industry, the attractions are known as flat rides. They add kinetic energy to a park, fit on a small footprint and appeal to a core audience of thrill seekers.
Emergency vehicles outside Knott’s Berry Farm after 22 people were stuck on the Sol Spin ride for two hours in Buena Park, CA, on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The thrill rides, known as Top Scans, are capable of spinning both the six gondolas and the rotating support arm in clockwise and counterclockwise directions. The support arm can also be paused at the top of the arc, causing riders to experience more over-the-top flipping motions as the gondolas continue to rotate.
Sol Spin riders sit in freely rotating gondolas attached to a counterclockwise-rotating arm that makes an oval arc through the air. The floorless coaster-like seats with over-the-shoulder restraints allow riders to dangle their feet and arms as centrifugal force causes the gondolas to rock back and forth.
Sol Spin replaced Windseeker, a short-lived 301-foot-tall tower ride that the park removed after a series of malfunctions on the Mondial rides stranded visitors hundreds of feet in the air for hours during the summer of 2012.