Talk:Acrophobia (ride)

Possible Relation to Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom Superman Tower of Power Incident
This is in relation to the Thrill rides in U.S., Canada shut down after girl's feet are severed|Superman Tower of Power incident at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom.

I visited Six Flags Over Georgia on Wednesday, June 27, 2007 and began investigating why the Acrophobia ride was closed once again. It has been closed each of the three times I have visited in the last four years. Understandably, it has just been bad luck on they days I chose to visit, but due to the frustration, and the fact that it happens to be one of my favorites attractions, I began to investigate why it was closed this specific time. On that day, several workers could be seen climbing around the base of the ride.

Both the Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom ride, Superman: Tower of Power, and the Six Flags Over Georgia ride, Acrophobia, are Intamin AG-manufactured "Giant Drop" products classified as Drop Towers (Acrophobia is called a "Giant Drop variant" in this very article and Kentucky Kingdom's Tower is called "Intamin 150 ft. giant drop" in their Wikipedia page). This is important because Six Flags spokeswoman Wendy Goldberg Thrill rides in U.S., Canada shut down after girl's feet are severed|has told the Associated Press that another drop tower they operate at Six Flags Over Texas (Arlington), which shares the same name as the Superman Tower of Power, can continue operating because it is made by a different manufacturer (S&S Power's "Turbo Drop" drop tower combined with a "Power Shot") and operates differently while at the same time news reports state that Six Flags has closed nine similar rides at four different parks. It does not make sense that any one park would have had more than one drop tower, so clearly the news reports were confused because only four parks were named. It is likely that Six Flags Over Georgia was not mentioned because the name, Acrophobia, is not shared by other rides and they wanted to limit the spread of notoriety just as they attempted to disassociate the Arlington ride from the Kentucky incident.

I believe a mention of this controversy must be made in the article because they will make statements to calm riders of their Arlington Texas ride, but they will not give the information required to link a differently named but similarly potentially dangerous ride to it. There is very little information linking this ride or its closure to the Tower of Power attraction though they are clearly just different versions of the same ride (drop tower) with the same product name (Giant Drop) from the same manufacturer (Intamin AG).

Acrophobia is one of my favorite attractions at Six Flags Over Georgia and I hope that they can once again guarantee its safety, but until then they should not be claiming that the nine closed rides were at four other parks to mask information from people who would be otherwise concerned. Of course, it is entirely possible that the Acrophobia variant uses a different system and does not utilize the same mechanism that failed in the Tower of Power, but it is extremely suspect that Six Flags has claimed nine closures at *only* four parks and then seeing such a similar ride with so many connections also closed at Six Flags over Georgia with no official connection. 72.15.79.28 15:00, 1 July 2007 (UTC) Julian Emmett Turner


 * Let's clarify who closed what ... after the Kentucky incident, 9 parks (4 Six Flags and 5 Cedar Fair, with Cedar Fair's notably being all of the former Paramount Parks) shut down their Intamin towers. Most were identical to the affected Kentucky tower, while at least two (the Drop Zone towers at Kings Island and Kings Dominion) are Gyro Drop towers.  After the initial closure, Six Flags in Atlanta decided to close Acrophobia, which is classified by Ride Trade--Intamin's flat-ride arm--as a Floorless Tilting Gyro Drop.  The Gyro Drops are similar to the Giant Drop, but are not entirely identical.  That said, it seems like SFOG wanted to err on the side of caution, much as Cedar Fair did.  Cedar Fair has started re-opening its towers (the Gyro Drops), but there is a possibility that the Giant Drop towers will not re-open anytime soon ... in the case of Six Flags, they may not re-open at all.  Acrophobia is a different beast, like its Cedar Fair Gyro Drop siblings, so it will probably be opening back up in the near future.


 * I hope this clarifies the issue and gives a reason as to why this should not be added to the article.


 * McDoobAU93 16:00, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

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Yours truly AlexNewArtBot 15:06, 26 March 2007 (UTC)