Adventureland ride rescue: Mom, fire chief describe drama after Wave Twister suddenly stopped

Danielle Paniccia tried to remain calm as she stared up at her two children stranded with their feet dangling on the Wave Twister ride at Adventureland Friday evening.

“I think initially there was a lot of fear, even though I was trying to be calm for the kids,” she said.

Her 12-year-old son, Pietro, and 11-year-old daughter, Lena, were among 15 children and one adult who had to be rescued by firefighters after the amusement park’s newest thrill ride malfunctioned and the circular cars that spin on a nearly 280-foot track stuck in one position.

On Saturday, as the East Farmingdale amusement park reopened with the Wave Twister offline, Paniccia, of Ronkonkoma, recounted the experience and was thankful all the riders had been safely rescued in a more than three-hour ordeal.

“My kids were pretty OK,” she said. “Now they think it’s the coolest thing in the world.”

Mark L. Smith, a park spokesman, said the ride will be closed until further notice.

"We understand the concern of the riders and their families who were involved [Friday], and we will be working with our ride consultants to fully assess what happened," he said in a statement that was also published to the park’s social media Saturday. "Until further review that ride will not be in service. We appreciate the dedication of the many first responder departments who skillfully assisted in getting our guests off the ride."

Paniccia was on the phone with her mother at 6:53 p.m. when she noticed something amiss with the ride. It appeared to come to a stop.

Workers at the amusement park soon arrived and began to assess the problem, she said. After about 40 minutes, with no resolution in sight, her father called 911, prompting a large response from multiple fire departments.

James Quinn Jr., chief of the East Farmingdale Fire Department, led the rescue as part of a specialized training unit known as a technical rescue matrix, with members of the West Babylon and Amityville Village fire departments. Suffolk County Police Emergency Services Unit officers also contributed.

Quinn said in an interview Saturday the ride was stuck “in the worst possible spot” based on accessibility and the ride's position in a high point of the track between two valleys.

Firefighters used a cherry picker and ladder trucks to reach cars about 50 feet in the air on the track.

“The only access we had to it were our ladder trucks, and at one point it was the farthest point from their fence line and we were able to gain access from the parking lot next door,” he said.

Firefighters used a harness to connect to the riders and safely bring them off the ride.

The first nine people in the lower part of the ride were brought down within about an hour, the chief said.

But those riders exiting “kind of threw the ride off balance a little bit,” he said, requiring the top half to be chained and secured before the remaining riders could be extricated.

“We didn’t want the thing to go and spin on itself,” he said.

He said it appeared the brakes locked up on the ride, but he didn't have additional information on the precise cause of the malfunction.

Steve Gentile, co-owner and president of Adventureland, deferred comment on Saturday to the company’s PR firm.

Business appeared to be running as usual at the park early Saturday afternoon, when hundreds of children and parents were making their way around the property, using the functioning rides and buying food and drink from concession stands. A Newsday reporter and photographer were escorted from the property by Adventureland staffers.

The Wave Twister  is manufactured by Ride Engineers Switzerland. It was brought from Europe via container ship earlier this year, Newsday previously reported.

The company promoted the ride at Adventureland as the “world’s first” of its kind and one that is “simulating the exhilarating sensation of gliding atop massive ocean waves.”

The company on Saturday also deferred comment to the park’s public relations firm.

The New York State Department of Labor is responsible for inspections of amusement park rides. Its online database shows 11 Adventureland rides were assessed 19 total violations in the most recent inspection done March 20, the same day the park opened for the season. All rides passed their inspections, and most violations fell under a category for wear or damage to parts.

The Wave Twister did not have any violations.

There have been other harrowing rescues at amusement parks across the country already this year. Last month in Texas, eight riders were stranded about 100 feet in the air on a roller coaster at Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier. In St. Louis earlier this month, four people became stranded about 120 feet in the air on a swing ride that malfunctioned at Six Flags St. Louis, according to local media reports.

In 2005, two people died in separate incidents at Adventureland in a three-day span. A 45-year-old woman who was part of a group from a home for mentally disabled adults was thrown from a ride called TopScan, according to Newsday archives. Before that, an employee leaned over an elevated track and was fatally struck by the train of a roller coaster, according to a summary report by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.  

Paniccia said her family typically visits the park a few times a season and on her birthday at the end of summer. Her kids said they still want to go back to the park. But they’ll be skipping the Wave Twister.

“They’re done,” she said. “They’ll go on their tried-and-true rides.”