Visitors Had To Climb Down Six Flags' 30-Story Sky Trek Tower After Breakdown

By Jim Bochnowski in News on Jun 22, 2015 9:05PM

Picture via Six Flags Great America Facebook page

The Sky Trek Tower at Six Flags Great America is not typically the ride of choice for thrill seekers. But this weekend, some visitors got stuck in the nearly 30-story tower for nearly two hours and needed to climb their way back to the ground.

While certainly not as "exciting" as the other rides around the Gurnee park, the tower, originally constructed in 1977, is billed by the amusement park as a "rotating, aerial cabin [that] offers views of the Great America skyline from 28.5 stories in the air." It even provides views of Chicago on particularly clear days.

On Father's Day, as riders were enjoying the sights from above, the tower suddenly stopped working, effectively trapping customers for nearly two hours until they could be escorted out of the tower down an emergency staircase, according to the Chicago Tribune. Information about how high the ride was at the time of the incident or how many people were stuck was not made available.

One person stuck on the ride told NBC that after the ride initially stopped moving, it then "started to move down again then suddenly dropped about 15 or 20 feet, then came to a stop." In a statement refuting this account, Six Flags said:

"Sky Trek Tower operates just like an elevator. The elevator-style secondary brakes serve as a safety mechanism to stop the cabin at any point along the tower. During the manual descent, the secondary brakes engaged, causing an immediate and abrupt stop of the cabin. At no time did the ride drop at a high rate of speed. All guests were safely escorted off the ride via a staircase by our rides management staff. Because the safety of our guests is our number one priority, we took the time necessary to safely exit the ride."

Regulations regarding amusement park rides are notoriously erratic, so accidents tend to be prevalent. Last year, Senator Ed Markey told the New York Times, "A baby stroller is subject to tougher federal regulation than a roller coaster carrying a child in excess of 100 miles per hour. This is a mistake." And although, in this case, there were no major injuries, a study by the Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio estimated that "a child is hospitalized once every three days in the summer from an injury related to a park, carnival, fair or arcade ride."

So while I'm sure Six Flags Great America rides are regularly inspected, this lack of oversight sometimes leads to the nightmare of being stuck in an enclosed glass elevator for two hours. At least the guests are receiving free passes to come back—but after something like this happens, would you want to visit again?