Terrified riders stuck upside down for over four hours as festival ride breaks down

Have you ever - for whatever reason - hung upside down for too long and felt all that blood rushing to your head? Well imagine doing that for hours on end.

I don't even want to think about how purple your face would be, but a group of people visiting the Forest County Festival in Forest County, Wisconsin found out the hard way after getting stuck upside down on a rollercoaster called the Fireball.

Footage filmed at the festival on Sunday (2 July) shows the carriage of the rollercoaster suspended high above the ground after getting stuck in the middle of a loop on the track.

Firefighters were called to the scene after the ride got stuck, though responders have admitted they didn't really know what to expect before they arrived.

Erica Kostichka, City of Antigo Fire Department Firefighter/EMT, told CBS 58: "We had about a 35 to 40 minutes travel time, so during that time obviously the anticipation is building."

The responders arrived to find eight people, seven of who were children, stuck upside down on the ride.

"The ride had malfunctioned and we had people who were upside down," Kostichka said.

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Firefighters were able to use the platform on their truck to reach the rollercoaster and everyone trapped inside, and manoeuvre them out of the carriage while it continued to hang upside down.

The riders are believed to have hung from the ride for more than four hours in total.

Kostichka herself then walked the group from the top of the platform back down to Earth, where they were able to recover from the shock of the terrifying incident.

"You know a lot of [the kids] you could tell, their legs were shaking, they were sweating, and it was just a matter of letting them know hey this is no race to get down to the finish line, the hard part is over," Kostichka said, adding: "They were very brave."

All eight of the passengers were taken to the hospital to be checked over after being removed from the ride, and Kostichka noted how grateful she was that everyone was able to leave safely.

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"It's always a great opportunity when you can work with other agencies and it flows good, and the outcome comes out the way it was," she said.

As for why the ride got stuck in the first place, Captain Brennan Cook, of the Crandon Fire Department, said that teams found a 'mechanical failure'.

"All we know that there is a mechanical failure with the ride where it became stuck in the upright position the ride was recently inspected by the state of Wisconsin here on site and at this time, we do not have any other information," he said.

The Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services requires all amusement rides to be inspected daily before operation.

UNILAD has reached out to Crandon International Off Road Raceway for comment.