That's more like a never ending dragster where you go over the top, that euphoric moment of leaving the Eu and then you crash through the earths surface, straight through to the other side of the planet and the only benefit you have is that you've probably melted in the Earths molten core.
I believe that during winter maintenance a major fault was found with the ride which couldn't be repaired.
The park wanted to keep the ride but a replacement ship couldn't be gotten in so quickly, especially as the budget had already been spent elsewhere. So a quiet removal followed by a quiet reintroduction was decided upon.
Presumably it'll be of a similar size and scale to Black Buccaneer.
Black Bucaneer is back according to a tweet from Chessington - but now it's blue!
Meanwhile, Thorpe have announced.... well nothing (officially anyway)