27 Riders Rescued After 3-Hour Ordeal Stuck 50 Feet Above Ground on UK Theme Park Ride

Firefighters in eastern England spent three hours extracting nearly two dozen people from a stalled amusement ride on Bank Holiday Monday, bringing all passengers safely to the ground without injury after a mechanical failure left them suspended high above the park.

The incident unfolded at Pleasurewood Hills in Lowestoft, Suffolk, when the Wipeout ride's carriages halted approximately 15 meters (roughly 50 feet) up on the track around 1:36 p.m. local time. A visitor present that day noticed what appeared to be a broader power disruption affecting multiple attractions across the park at the same time.

A Long Wait at Height

Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service deployed specialized equipment to address the situation. Crews used an aerial ladder and scissor lift to bring the 27 stranded riders down one by one, a methodical process that took hours. The ride itself had not rotated into an inverted position—a detail that likely eased the psychological toll on those trapped overhead, though the duration of the ordeal still weighed heavily on passengers.

Richard Lines, a visitor who witnessed the rescue operation from elsewhere in the park, noted the strain on those at the front and rear of the carriages. "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," he said. Lines was visiting with his two children and observed firefighters methodically freeing each passenger.