If you’ve ever experienced the simultaneous thrill and terror of amusement parks, then grab your popcorn because we’ve got a story for the ages. Imagine this: a blissful day at the park ends with you hanging upside down for a nail-biting 20 minutes! Yes, you read that right. Twenty. Whole. Minutes. More than two dozen riders at Portland’s Oaks Amusement Park’s AtmosFEAR went through this exact ordeal and lived to tell the tale.
At around 2:55 p.m. on a seemingly ordinary Friday, the AtmosFEAR ride decided to spice things up. Just as it was peaking its ‘apex position,’ Aka the spot where it suspends riders upside down several stories above the ground, it came to an unscheduled halt. Cue the dramatic music, please!
The ride operators immediately called 911 and began initiating “emergency procedures.” And before you could grab another handful of cotton candy, the fire department was on the scene, ready to swing into action (pun intended). Big shoutout to the first responders and the amusement park staff for their prompt efforts in handling this topsy-turvy situation.
Now, let’s meet some of our brave (albeit involuntary) daredevils. First up, we have Daniel Allen who, when his feet finally touched the sweet, sweet ground, burst into tears—not of joy, not of sorrow, but sheer relief. “I was crying. I was more happy, I was alive. I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated my life more,” Daniel confessed, adding that this moment was a wake-up call for him.
Jordan Harding, another rider, recounted her uniquely uncomfortable experience. “My entire waist below was asleep,” she explained. “[A fellow rider] told me, ‘You have to hold your legs back.’ It was so hard. It was so bad.” But every cloud has a silver lining, and for Jordan, it came in the form of a tiny but mighty woman firefighter. “She literally, like, picked me up, and I was just so overwhelmed and everything, I gave her, like, the biggest hug,” Jordan elaborated.
Thankfully, all riders were assessed by first responders and cleared to go home, except one individual with pre-existing health conditions who was transported to a local hospital as a precaution. This incident was a stress test, but there’s good news: the Portland Fire Department had pre-planned for this very scenario. Talk about being prepared!
In their steady hands, the rescue mission went as smoothly as it could under such dizzying circumstances. “It may have taken a few minutes longer to return everyone to the ground, but we are ready for this and many other unique emergencies,” the fire department stated. Talk about leaving nothing to chance!
As for the mechanical culprit, AtmosFEAR, which made its debut in 2021, had been operating without incident until that fateful Friday. Oaks Park officials are now gearing up for a thorough investigation in partnership with the ride’s manufacturer and state inspectors to find out why the ride tried to channel its inner action movie.
The park quickly closed for the day following the incident, and its website states that AtmosFEAR will be shut down until further notice. Which, let’s be honest, is probably for the best!
So, what’s the moral of this rollercoaster tale? Always expect the unexpected—even when the unexpected includes dangling upside down in the sky. Which I suppose is a pretty good metaphor for life—full of twists and turns, ups and downs, and the importance of having a solid support system when things go a bit haywire.
