People stuck on ride at Lehigh Acres Spring Festival

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LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. – Around 8 p.m. witnesses told WINK News a carnival ride was stuck in the air, trapping riders.

The ride, known as the Power Surge was stuck in the air for more than an hour Saturday night. Fire fighters used a ladder to rescue the passengers on the ride. Fortunately, no one was injured.

The officer manager of Modern Midways, the company who operates the ride, told WINK News his company just bought the ride. He believed a hydraulic pump failed.

WINK News talked to Autumn Spainhower, who said she was on the ride earlier Saturday when it got stuck. Spainhower said she was stuck upside down for five minutes before the operator was able to bring the ride to the ground.

“I was completely upside down and they were sideways. We watched the carnie go back and forth from the machine to the front, where it runs it, several times, until he released the air out of the hydraulic line to slowly lower us down. Meanwhile, I was stuck upside down for literally five minutes.”

Emergency officials told WINK News roughly a half-dozen people were on the ride at the time.

This is third year in a row a ride has had problems at the Lehigh Acres Spring Festival. Last year, a piece of metal flew off a ride and hit a car parked nearby. In 2013, the Ring of Fire malfunctioned. An investigation later determined there was several loose, worn and severely cracked parts. The company who maintained that ride was also Modern Midways.

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