Teen Falls From Six Flags Ride, Other Park Guests Catch Her

Several guests at a Six Flags amusement part in New York worked together over the weekend to catch a teen dangling from a ride, video from the tense situation shows.

The Washington Post reports that a 14-year-old Delaware girl is in stable condition with no serious injuries after the Saturday evening incident at the Six Flags Great Escape Park in Lake George, NY.

The incident, which was captured on video by several park guests, shows the teen hanging about 25 feet in the air from a two-person gondola ride and screaming for help.

A crowd began gathering under the girl, opening their arms to catch her. At least one other person climbed a nearby tree to move branches from the area where the girl was hanging.

After about 90 seconds, one guest tells the Post, the girl dropped from the ride. She hit a tree branch before being caught by onlookers on the ground. She was then carried away to a golf cart and treated by park emergency staff.

The teen was then taken to a local hospital and flown by helicopter to Albany Medical Center, where she remains in stable condition, according to the Warren Country Sheriff’s Office. One of the men who helped to catch the girl was taken to the hospital for a back injury.

“It was just good to see people band together to do what they could do,” the man who took video of the situation tells the Post, adding that he was concerned that the girl had to be walked another 30 feet or so to a waiting golf cart.

A rep for the park tells the Times that staff followed the ride’s “standard evacuation plan.”

“As part of our annual practice an evacuation drill is conducted in partnership with local emergency personnel on this particular ride each spring,” she wrote. “Every situation is unique and requires the appropriate time and tools for the evacuation. We are reviewing our internal procedures to ensure the safety and security of our guests and team members.”

It’s unclear what led the teen to be dangling from the gondola ride, which is described as a slow-moving ride spanning several hundred feet across the park.

The Sheriff’s Office tells the Post that after park officials received notice of a rider in distress they stopped the ride.

Following the incident, park staff and investigators examined the ride and the girl’s gondola, finding that “everything was in proper working order and all safety equipment was intact and operational at the time of the incident.”

Still, out of an abundance of caution, the ride will remain closed until a thorough internal review is completed, a rep for the park said.