Newspaper review 2

Article: Stopped 3 times before
Date: 2 January 2009



Summary
SINGAPORE - LESS than three weeks before 173 people became trapped on the world's biggest observation wheel, dozens were stuck in another incident, the attraction said on Friday.

The Singapore Flyer gave AFP details of three previous stoppages at the wheel before the most serious incident on December 23 which trapped most of the 173 passengers for more than six hours.

On December 4, 74 passengers were affected during a stoppage which lasted about an hour, the Flyer said in a statement that cited extreme weather and a short circuit as the cause.

Passengers were not at risk, said the Flyer, which opened last February and is one of Singapore's major tourist attractions.

On July 11, two passengers were on board when the wheel stopped for about an hour because of a minor braking system fault, the Flyer said.

No visitors were aboard on June 18 when the wheel stopped for an hour in an electrical storm. Passengers had been evacuated earlier as a precaution because of the bad weather, the Flyer said.

The wheel has been closed since it stopped turning after a small electrical fire on December 23.

Police are investigating and the Flyer's chairman, Florian Bollen, said international experts had gathered to examine what caused that incident 'and to make sure that this will never happen again'.

Most passengers were stuck inside the Flyer's enclosed cabins until power was restored but 10 escaped using rescue harnesses. Two were taken to hospital. – AFP

Reflections
After reading this article, I guess we all have second thoughts about going up the Singapore Flyer. Indeed, it may not seem as safe as anyone would have thought. Once is bad enough, but thrice?

Firstly, let’s be thankful there were no casualties involved in this incident, but the way staff and management handled this would make many shake their heads in disgust. Australian tourist Anna-Louise Allen, 51, who was stuck with her husband and teenage daughter, said: 'What was scary was that we didn't know what was going on. We kept on pushing the intercom button to ask what was going on, but we were not given sufficient updates.' The 6 hours long delay for the poor tourists and locals completely inexcusable. Surely they have had dry runs and planned failure procedures to carry out in such crisis? The staffs were clearly untrained and helpless in handling a situation like such.

Safety measures should be taken to tackle such issues and to prevent it from happening again. After all, the Singapore Flyer is publicised as the world's largest observation wheel, and is a tourist attraction for our country. Hence, for every big event where tourism is affected, the management need to make sure all necessary backups system are in order. The failures would reflect on the complacent mentality of the management when the people-in-charge fail to analyse the what-ifs and what to dos when incidents happen.

In conclusion, I find this lesson important for all to learn that such unexpected breakdowns and failures can always happen. After all, failure is the mother of success. Hopefully, the wheel will resume rotating after all safety measures are taken to prevent this mishap from occurring again.

Rachel