Walt Disney World reopened the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ride at Disney-MGM Studios this morning, one day after a British teenager suffered cardiac arrest following a visit to the attraction.
Disney said engineers and ride system experts completed an inspection overnight, under monitoring by an inspector from the Florida Department of Agriculture Bureau of Fair Rides Inspection and found it to be operating properly.
In addition, Disney said in a statement, the Orange County Sheriff's Office also reviewed the incident and found no indication of a ride malfunction.
The teenager, Leanne Deacon, 16, remains in critical condition at Florida Hospital Orlando this afternoon. According to an Orange Sheriff's Office report, the girl had visited the park six times in the past week with her mother, June, 54, who reported they rode the
Leanne Deacon exited the thrill ride at 9:50 a.m. Tuesday, shaking and light-headed, and soon lost consciousness. By the time she arrived in an ambulance at Florida Hospital Celebration Health, her heart had stopped beating and she had to be revived, Orange County Sheriff's spokesman Jim Solomons said. The sheriff's report says a CAT scan showed the girl had blood on her brain and required emergency surgery. She was later transferred to the
The family declined requests for an interview through a Florida Hospital Orlando spokeswoman. She said she could release no other details about Leanne's condition or her treatment.
The thrill ride is among the most popular at Disney MGM-Studios and by 10 a.m. today the wait time was up to 60 minutes, longer than any other ride at the park, according to a poster-board at the park listing wait times.
Disney employees said the one-hour wait is fairly typical for this time of year for the ride, which simulates a runaway hotel elevator, shooting to the top of the tower and plunging down a shaft up to 13 stories.
Most people standing in line or just exiting the ride said they had not heard about the British teen's trip to the hospital after riding the attraction. But most said they had no real fears about the ride and considered the traffic and
"It's awesome. I would ride it again," said Derenda Davilla, a chaperone for a
"It's not too scary. It's a fun ride," said Nick Watts, 41, another chaperone. The group of 13 included teens from 13 to 18 years old.
Officials with the state Bureau of Fair Rides Inspection said they sent two of their top managers to Disney to oversee Disney's inspection of the ride after the teen's trip to the hospital was reported as required to the agency. The officials were identified as Isadore "Izzy" Rommes, chief of the Tallahassee-based inspection agency, and his top investigator, Allan Harrison.
Disney invited the state inspectors to check out the ride, even though the park is not required to do so by
McElroy said Rommes and Harrison worked alongside Disney engineers from late Tuesday night until nearly 4 a.m. today checking out the ride and found no problems.
"Disney said it was operating normally and our folks concurred. We were satisfied with the safety procedures and the mechanical soundness of the ride," McElroy said.
"We observed their testing of the equipment, backwards and forwards, numerous times. One of our guys said they didn't get back to the hotel room until about 4 a.m., so they spent quite a bit of time looking things over."
What I do is kick them in the pants with a diamond buckled shoe!
~~Aileen Mehle~~
