Twenty-seven people rescued from rollercoaster

Rollercoaster Stranded 15 Metres in the Air: 27 Riders Rescued After Three-Hour Breakdown

Ninoda.com – What was meant to be a final thrill of the summer season turned into a long, vertigo-inducing wait for 27 visitors at Pleasurewood Hills theme park in Lowestoft, Suffolk. On Bank Holiday Monday — the last day of the park’s extended summer trading period — the attraction’s flagship rollercoaster, Wipeout, ground to a halt with its carriages suspended roughly 15 metres (49 feet) above the ground. Riders remained trapped in their seats for as long as three hours before firefighters brought them safely to the ground.

The Breakdown and Immediate Response

Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service received the call at 13:36 BST. Witnesses at the park described what appeared to be a widespread electrical failure that simultaneously affected several rides across the site. Video captured by a bystander shows the Wipeout train freezing mid-track, then briefly lurching forward before rolling slowly back and forth in a stalled, unpowered state before coming to rest once more.

Fire crews arrived and deployed an aerial ladder to reach the stranded passengers. Working methodically, rescuers freed riders one at a time from the elevated carriages. By 17:10, all 27 occupants had been brought down. The fire service confirmed that no injuries were sustained during the ordeal.

Eyewitness Account

Richard Lines, a visitor from Wymondham in Norfolk who was at the park with his two children, happened to be riding a different attraction positioned close to Wipeout when the power failure struck. He watched as a park employee climbed toward the immobilised train to assess the situation.

“You feel sorry for the ones that were either at the front or the back who were up there for a good three hours — which is a long time.”

Lines noted the unsettling sight of the carriages attempting to move again only to oscillate helplessly before stopping for good. His family’s afternoon, originally planned around the park’s extended Bank Holiday hours, was effectively consumed by the wait.

Park Response and Compensation

Pleasurewood Hills issued a statement expressing gratitude toward the riders’ composure during the incident and toward their families for what the park described as remarkable forbearance.

“We appreciate that being stuck on a ride is not something anyone expects when visiting us.”

The park added that the “safety and wellbeing of our guests is always our highest priority” and offered a “sincere” apology to everyone affected. Affected visitors were told they would receive complimentary tickets as compensation for the disrupted day.

Background on Wipeout

Wipeout has served as the centrepiece attraction at Pleasurewood Hills since its opening in 2007, when it was marketed as “the tallest, fastest and most extreme ride in East Anglia.” The structure rises more than 40 metres (131 feet), making it one of the taller steel coasters in the eastern counties.

Over the winter of 2024–2025, the park invested approximately £1 million in a comprehensive overhaul of the ride. The upgrade included a brand-new train fitted with waist-restraint lap bars, a design intended to improve both rider comfort and restraint security. Despite that recent investment, the Monday incident marked the second notable breakdown on record: in 2017, a single male rider was extracted from the ride after a mechanical failure left him stranded.

Why the Timing Mattered

Bank Holiday Monday represents the final operating day of the theme park’s summer season, a period during which the site extends its daily hours to accommodate peak visitor numbers. A multi-hour stall on the park’s most prominent ride therefore carried particular weight: families who had travelled specifically for the extended-day event found their visit effectively curtailed, and the visual spectacle of a coaster train hanging motionless in the Suffolk sky drew widespread attention on social media within hours.

The incident also underscores a recurring challenge for amusement parks operating large mechanical rides: even with recent capital investment in safety systems, electrical faults can immobilise a train at its most exposed point, leaving operators dependent on external emergency services for passenger extraction. The three-hour duration of this particular event — from initial call to final rescue — highlights both the complexity of reaching riders at height and the patience required of those left waiting in the air.

Pleasurewood Hills has not yet published a detailed technical explanation for the cause of the Monday power failure. Fire crews were observed departing the site in the afternoon following completion of the rescue operation.