NEWLY-WEDS Eric Ong and Ong Pei Ling had planned a romantic wedding in the sky on the Singapore Flyer yesterday, but their plan was wrecked before they could begin.
A technical glitch about half an hour before the couple and their entourage were to board the Flyer saw it grind to an abrupt halt, with 173 people still on it.
The couple and 26 family members and friends were scheduled to go up at about 5.30pm and ascend to the peak of the 165m-high wheel 15 minutes later where they would exchange their vows.
Harrowing rope rescue
ONE woman cried while she was being lowered down by a rope from a capsule about eight storeys high. Another kept her eyes tightly shut until her feet touched solid ground before bursting into tears of joy.
Ten passengers were put through the harrowing experience of being lowered out of the capsules by rope before the Singapore Flyer started turning again at about 11pm.
The other passengers managed to walk out of their capsules when it reached the platform level.
'Last night's rescue operation a very dramatic one'
THERE are several other giant observation wheels around the world, though none taller than the Singapore Flyer, making last night's rescue operation a very dramatic one.
At 165m in height, the world's tallest wheel was designed to be a slimmer, lighter version of the London Eye.
A technical fault on the British wheel in March this year stranded about 400 passengers for an hour. No one was evacuated while repairs were carried out.
Past incidents - here and abroad
There had been three previous incidents at the Singapore Flyer since it started operations in February, where the wheel had to be stopped due to technical faults. But each time, the shutdown did not last for more than an hour. In one of the latest incidents, in July, the Flyer stopped turning for 30 minutes due to a minor fault in the braking system. Three weeks ago, it was stuck for under an hour when bad weather forced it to stop turning. Seventy people were stranded.
About 400 people were stranded for an hour on the London Eye in Britain in March this year. Engineers stopped the ride after discovering a fault in one of the four giant mechanical wheels that drive the Eye. The passengers were told of the delay over the ride's intercom. Each capsule contained emergency blankets, water and commodes.
Five people died last year when they were thrown out of a South Korean Ferris wheel. The capsule was 20m above the ground when it rammed into another pod, forcing the door open and sending the passengers plummeting to their deaths.
