Southend's Adventure Island says Rage ride is safe after rollercoaster gets stuck
ITV News Angila's Callum Fairhurst spoke to the Managing Director of the theme park.
A theme park boss has reassured visitors all rides are safe after a rollercoaster stopped suddenly and left passengers 72 feet in the air.
The group of eight people at Adventure Island in Southend became stuck at a 90-degree angle facing towards the sky - with the carriage almost at the top of the ride.
They were returned safely to the ground without 40 minutes, the park said.
It happened at the 'Rage' rollercoaster ride just before 2pm on Friday.
Video footage shows rescue teams helping the first few passengers in the front row of the carriage.
Marc Miller, managing director of the Stockvale Group - which runs Adventure Island, said they have rehearsed evacuations "time and time again", but that an incident like this is "extremely rare."
He said: "These rides are tested every single day, week, month, and annually. Then through the winter period, all these rides are stripped down, the inspection process on these rides is immense."
Mr Miller went on to say the reason the ride had stopped was due to a computerised safety feature: "The reason the ride actually did stop, is because the ride has something called a PLC, two independent computer systems that detect something on a ride that says "stop", it's a safety feature within the ride."
Trained engineers checked the ride for a number of hours before it opened again at around 8:30pm the same night.
Footage shows people being rescued from the rage rollercoaster at Southend. Video from SWNS
One of the families who were stuck on the ride even ended up being one of the first to get back on it.
Katie Webster had travelled with her two children from Kent. She told ITV Anglia she had gone for a "fun day out during the summer holidays".
She said: "There was some banging and crashing noises and the carriage came to a halt. Everyone was a little bit concerned on board. Someone was sent quickly to reassure us. It was worrying. We were trying to keep the children calm.
"They were really organised, knew exactly what they were doing. They got us out one by one. They were very reassuring.
"Once we recovered from the shock, the kids noticed the ride was back on and begged us to go on. I was petrified, and relieved. They loved it and we got to skip the queue."
Another witness, Ann, said she was at the park with her daughter and grandsons, when her daughter heard a "big bang" and a "screeching sound".
She said: "After that, I saw security there telling everyone to move back, then someone was going there to try get them out.
"It was terrifying, because you go on a ride and you don't expect it to happen, at least everyone got out safely."
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