A teenage girl left hanging upside down on an Oregon theme park ride has revealed the terrifying moment she thought “we’re going to die out there.”
Jordan Harding, 18, told people She and her boyfriend were enjoying a fun date night at The Oaks Amusement Park in Portland, Oregon, when their getaway was interrupted when she was hung upside down for 20 minutes on the thrill ride “Atmosphere.”
“After about 15 seconds of being upside down we realised we were stuck,” Harding said.
“I thought I was going to die there. My boyfriend was scared too.”
The 18-year-old said her life flashed before her eyes as she reflected on it while trapped completely upside down with 28 other people.
“I remember thinking that I was going to die like this and miss out on so many important things that I wanted to experience,” she said.
Harding said most of the passengers were on a field trip with eighth-graders when the attraction suddenly and completely stopped.
They remained calm while Portland Fire Rescue and ride operators worked to evacuate more than 20 workers to the ground, she said.
Portland Fire Rescue was called to the theme park on Friday evening after a rotating pendulum ride malfunctioned.
The ride malfunction occurred on the park’s first day of opening for the summer.
Park engineers worked with fire officials to “manually dismount” the overturned vehicle, the fire department said.
A fire service spokesman said the passengers were evacuated and then given medical examinations.
“The vehicle has been manually lowered and all passengers have been evacuated and are undergoing medical evaluation,” authorities said in a statement on Friday evening.
Oaks Park announced the attraction will be closed until further notice.
Oaks Park is Oregon’s oldest surviving amusement park and is located just three and a half miles from downtown Portland.
This small amusement park first opened just two days before the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition on May 30, 1905, and is one of the oldest continuously operating amusement parks in the country.
