Apparent Disney Skyliner Crash Shuts Down System; Evacuations Underway

    An apparent Disney Skyliner crash shut down the system on Saturday evening. Guests were stranded for over three hours on the line that runs between Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort and Epcot’s International Gateway. Some guests were evacuated by the Reedy Creek Fire Department per the emergency procedures they practiced over the summer, before the system opened to guests.

    Reports began to surface shortly before 8pm that there was an incident at the Riviera Resort station and that the Disney Skyliner gondola system had stopped. It took Disney hours to get all of the guests off of the system.

    A Disney spokesperson reached out and said that an “empty car was delayed, a second empty car bumped it. No Guests were involved”.

    BlogMickey.com was on site to provide up-to-the-minute updates and photos of the situation throughout the evening and our original article continues below.


    UPDATE: 10/6 10:40am: We’ve reached out to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and they have confirmed to us that they are not involved with any ongoing investigation into the Disney Skyliner gondola incident.

    UPDATE: 10/6 8am: Disney has closed the Disney Skyliner gondola system indefinitely as they investigate the incident on Saturday, October 5th.

    Here is the best look at the blue gondola cabin that seems to have been impacted by the yellow cabin at the Riviera Resort station. Clearly there is shattered glass on the ground as shown on the video taken.

    UPDATE: 10/6 12am – All guests have been evacuated from all Disney Skyliner gondola cabins and Doppelmayr is on site to assist. Doppelmayr is the company that built the Disney Skyliner gondola system.

    Disney Skyliner crash - doppelmayr trucks
    Disney Skyliner crash - doppelmayr trucks

    It looks like Disney was able to take the Disney Skyliner gondola cabin in question off of the line and continue movement to let most guests exit from the stations.

    Disney Skyliner crash
    Disney Skyliner crash

    One Disney Skyliner gondola cabin could be seen with its door open after all guests had been evacuated.

    UPDATE: 10/5 11:04pm – The Disney Skyliner has resumed moving. The cabins are returning very slowly back to the station.

    UPDATE: 10/5 11:02pm – The International Gateway station is closed and Cast Members are citing “technical difficulties” for the closure. Some guests that are still on the Disney Skyliner have been stuck for over 3 hours and are still waiting to be evacuated. The evacuation process can be seen below as fire truck ladders are used to remove guests.

    UPDATE: 10/5 9:51pm – Evacuations are currently taking place to safely remove guests from the gondolas. Some guests have been waiting for over 90 minutes and have been told to open the Emergency kit found in the gondola cabin.

    The Epcot Resorts Boulevard entrance by the Boardwalk is currently closed for the evacuations of the Disney Skyliner gondolas.

    Less than one week ago, the Disney Skyliner had its grand opening to guests, and tonight, it appears that there has been an accident with the Disney Skyliner system. According to reports, the apparent crash took place at the Riviera Resort station.

    Photo from @theEpcotQueen
    Photo from @galxty

    This is a developing story, stick with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to provide updates of the Disney Skyliner crash.

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    8 COMMENTS

    1. Hey, thanks for all the updates. One quick question. From what you have seen was the cabin involved in the accident coming into the station, Departing the station or re-joining the line from the assisted loading dock? I am curious as that will greatly affect the repair time.

    2. Your story says the blue gondola crashed into the yellow cabins. That didn’t happen, the blue cabin got stuck leaving the station and the yellow cars crushed into it.

    3. Disney dropped the ball on this one! Epic failure!! Your R&D team regarding these is a true Mickey Mouse outfit and should be fired. Saw this coming the first I heard of unair conditioned gondolas. You’re in Florida, not a ski area, predictable is preventable! The only saving grace to those trapped is that it’s night time and not out in the hot humid sunlight. Why they chose not to expand the monorail is beyond me. It has backups, A/C, and in the event of a malfunction you’re only dealing with 1 train to evacuate…. not gondolas every 100’ on a cable. Reedy Creek FD is awesome and they are doing a great job but Disney added to their plate of possible rescues scenarios which after a month of use, are now being utilized. Hope everyone involved is ok. The $100 and 2 park days isn’t enough to compensate the people trapped for 3+ hours.

    4. “A Disney spokesperson reached out and said that an “empty car was delayed, a second empty car bumped it. No Guests were involved”.” – One of the people in the yellow car that was crushed was on Disney Junkies discussing how he was in one of those cars. The glass shattered and metal was crushing into the car where him and his family were. They were evacuated quickly. This is not an honest statement from Disney at all. They are also calling the issue an “unexpected delay” instead of saying it was an accident. Cars crushing into each other and causing some people to be stuck 3.5 hour is definitely an accident.

    Comments are closed.

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