Riders were stranded atop the Iron Shark roller coaster. The group of students was stuck for about four hours.
GALVESTON, Texas — An hours-long ordeal for a group of HISD charter school students stuck 100 feet in the air on a Galveston roller coaster ended Thursday night safely.
It happened on the Iron Shark at Pleasure Pier. The roller coaster malfunctioned and came to a stop on the ascent, leaving the eight students near the top of the ride, facing straight up.
The ride first became stuck at around 5:30 p.m. When it did, Pleasure Pier officials called the Galveston Fire Department and a rescue crew brought out a ladder truck to get to the students. One-by-one, carefully and meticulously, each student was removed from the ride and brought down the ladder to safety.
Firefighters spent more than three hours rescuing the students from the roller coaster. Fire officials said the rescue was slow and methodical, with roughly 20 minutes between each student being brought down.
Galveston Fire Chief Mike Varela said the students were doing well, all things considered.
“Of course they were shaken up from climbing that ladder down, being in that hot sun,” he said. “They have been checked for dehydration and everyone seems to be doing pretty good.”
Rescuers used a tower truck to reach the coaster, secured each student in a harness, and carefully slid them out of their seats before bringing them down one at a time. The tower truck reached a maximum 105-feet in the air.
HISD confirmed the students were on a field trip organized by Energized for STEM Academy Middle School and STEM Academy High School. Those are both in-district charter schools.
“We are grateful that all students, staff, and chaperones are safe. School administration is in direct contact with the families of all students who were on the trip.,” the district said in a statement. “We are thankful for the rescue efforts of the first responders and park personnel.”
According to the Pleasure Pier website, the ride includes a 100-foot vertical lift and a beyond-vertical drop. It reaches speeds of 52 miles per hour, and riders have to be 42 inches tall to get on.
Terry Turney, Chief Operating Officer of Pleasure Pier, says the ride stopped as a result of a malfunction.
“The ride experienced a malfunction at its initial ascent, however, as designed, it immediately stopped to keep everyone safe,” Turney said in an emailed statement. “Our focus immediately shifted to the safety of our guests. Therefore, we contacted the Fire Department to assist, ensuring all guests were safely removed from the ride. A thorough inspection of the ride will take place before it is placed back in service.”
Pleasure Pier was evacuated due to the rescue operation.
Varela had high praise for the six-member rescue crew for pulling off the rescue successfully. He said they trained for this kind of high-risk, low frequency event.
“Those guys were top notch today on point and got all eight down,” he said. “I can’t say enough about them. They’re well trained and they’re ready to go when called on.”
Varela said the Pleasure Pier was set up for rescue crews to get to where the Iron Shark is.
“We knew one day we may have to get to the back of this pier, and they went ahead and they reinforced that middle layer that that street basically we can go down around the carousel,” he said. “It was designed strictly for us to get equipment back there.”
At this point, the cause of the malfunction isn’t known. We’ll post an update when we have more information. The ride will remain closed until it has a full inspection.
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