Power Outage Makes Las Vegas Riders Pee Their Pants.

---

Jeffrey Seifert said:
If power was lost to the whole tower I wonder if anyone was stuck in the elevators. Given a choice I would rather be dangling over the edge of the tower than stuck in the middle of it.

---

The 11 o'clock news said that only portions of the tower lost power. The video they showed when it first happened around 6p showed lights still on inside at the Top of the World restaurant as well as on Insanity. But all the exterior lights on the tower itself were out.

Makes you think, why would the lighting for the tower be connected to the operating power for the rides?

I admit I'm pretty weird when it comes to turbulence on planes, Antuan! I realize I'm not in the majority on that one...

I don't mind turbulences on a plane... I enjoy it too! But, if its turbulence the kind people flying from Los Angeles to Montreal had when nearing Montreal... its too much! One person was injured and had to be taken off the plane in Ottawa. It was due to a bunch of severe storms going from Toronto to Montreal.

I love turbulence on planes. Our flight to L.A. was filled with it. Our flight back, not so much.

The part I like about turbulence on planes is the look on the people's faces.. :)

(It's almost better than the look on some people's faces on coasters they're scared of)

Good call on the analogy of turbulence to a pothole in the road. It shakes you up a bit, but very rarely will it actually lead to an accident.

I was on it two nights before this incident. Why couldn't it have happened then? ;)

I actually found X-Scream to be on the tame side. Once you get used to being up there, the ride itself is not that big a deal. Having a nice 90-minute view (and maybe some free comps from the casino!) would've made the ride more exciting.

Now Big Shot, on the other hand...

Later,
EV

I will agree, X-Scream scared the crap out of me more than Insanity.

Why I don't know, maybe it was thinking that when it drops over the edge that it will fall off and your heading straight down to nowhere.

Anyone know if the casino gave them any compensation?

I don't know dudes, I was all hyped about knowing I was going to be block stopped on Millennium on a test run....until it happened. As the train slowed and the anti-rollbacks started doing their thing, I began to think it wasn't so cool.

In other words, I would not want this to happen to me- and if it did I'd most likely flip out :)!

Yeh...umm turbulence was fine until one time from Charlotte to Seattle we hit dead air, the plane dropped, people got hurt (a flight attendant was badly hurt from what I could tell) from hitting the ceiling, and crap went everywhere; now it's not so fun. *** Edited 11/18/2005 2:50:46 AM UTC by Willh51***

You guys are all wusses. ;-)

I guess that explains why the dude sitting next to me gave me strange looks during my flight from Chicago to Charleston this past January.

Once we got into West Virginia (45 minute flight..woohoo!) we hit a snowstorm and had a LOT of turbulence. It was awesome....the whole plane shook and I said something like "Oh man this is a riot!" and he looked at me like I was nuts, which I am. lol.

-Tina

As someone who's spent a LOT of time in the air, turbulence is not cool. Routine, yes. Not a big deal. But I wouldn't say I enjoy it. Especially when it spills my wine in first class, dammit ;)

(The scariest moment I ever experienced in the air wasn't technically turbulence, though. We were on final approach to Newark in a regional jet. Just as we were about to touch down, a crosswind coming over the water suddenly caught our jet and tilted us about 45 degrees to the side. Our wing sparked on the runway (I just happened to be sitting on that side of the plane, in the exit row -- lucky me). Fortunately the pilot was able to level us out quickly. Could have been worse -- at least I wasn't on the JetBlue Airbus with the stuck gear!)

Since I am at IAAPA, I stopped by the Interactive Rides booth and asked the impertinent question.

Indeed, the ride has a backup system to drive the hydraulics and pull the ride back from the brink if the power goes out.

Logically, then, the incident was caused because the people operating the ride were unable or unwilling to engage the emergency system.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Did you happen to ask them about Turbulence? (as in the Frequent Faller rollercoaster)

Most people look ready to crap their pants when the plane hits turbulence... I guess that's a natural reaction!

Well I have to say that I would much rather be in the Jet Blue plane with the stuck nose gear than in a plane that's dragging a wing on the ground! Those pilots really saved your butt, that plane could have easily cartwheeled along the ground.

Oh, agreed. There were 3 or 4 "preferred" passengers on the flight that day (read: people who fly too much), and we all made it a point to thank the pilot for his quick reaction. "Dragging" is a bit of an overstatement -- the contact was momentary at best -- but you're right, the plane could very easily have gone out of control at that point.

Still, it was such a quick occurance that it was over almost before my heart skipped the beat -- the JetBlue people had some time to sit up there and get all nervous about it ;)

I was just in Vegas, and on our connector flight to Denver, we had a ton of turbulence. Pretty sweet, I like it.

dannerman, I like to limit myself to one embarassing question per booth visit. :)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.