Disney Skyliner update: New Disney statement, 1 person confirmed taken to hospital
Walt Disney World has released a new statement concerning Saturday night’s Disney Skyliner incident which kept guests trapped in gondolas for up to three hours, and resulted in at least one person taken to the hospital the Orlando Sentinel is reporting.
The official statement released today by Disney is:
“We have a team diligently looking into the cause of the malfunction on the Epcot line of the Disney Skyliner. We have been in contact with the guests, many of whom were on the Skyliner for more than three hours until we were able to restart the system. We express our sincere apologies for the inconvenience and continue to work with each guest individually.”
The Skyliner will remain closed while Disney conducts its investigation.
Disney originally used the phrase “downtime” to describe the incident, but the latest statement acknowledges there was a malfunction.
The system went down after 8 p.m. The Reedy Creek Fire Department was called to assist. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Reedy Creek conducted only one evacuation, rescuing six people. One of the people who were rescued asked for medical attention. The person has since been released, but no further information was available.
Osceola and Orange sheriff’s officers were called in for mutual aid, but did not perform an evacuations, Eryka Washington, the new communications manager for Reedy Creek, told the Orlando Sentinel.
The Disney Skyliner, opened on Sept. 29 uses the Caribbean Beach Resort as the central hub and has three lines. The line that was impacted was the Epcot line, which connects Epcot with the soon to open Riviera and Caribbean Beach resorts.
A second line connects Hollywood Studios and Caribbean Beach and the third line connects
The system started running again a little after 11 p.m., shortly after the rescue took place and those remaining on gondolas were able to exit when the cabins reached the station. Disney cast members were on hand to drive people back to their resorts and speak with them.
A photo of a pile-up of gondolas at the Riviera station made its way around social media. It is unknown if gondola 108 apparently hit the others in line after the system stopped or if it was the malfunction that caused the system to go down.
