pluk

I guess that's the issue though; it's also not right if the nose from X is heavily leaking onto other attractions, spoiling their presentation. Bit of a balancing act for them I suppose. That's the issue with developing things in to something they weren't designed to be.

They way it flies through it's own support structure looks flipping amazing. I imagine it'll be hugely disorientating in there at those angles. That second inversion that pulls out of itself two thirds of the way round looks so odd though, I can't imagine that being a nice sensation at all? I need to get me on an RMC to find out.

I want to be excited for it, but can't find anything much to be excited about. My biggest concern is that this half arsed effort will decrease further the chances of the UK getting a decent woodie if it is seen by the industry as a flop.

The shoulder straps look very minimal for a flyer, not sure that'll be too comfortable.

Towers Facebook today flogging frightnights based on the incredible thrill of riding Nemesis in the dark. And it is an incredible thrill. I like this a lot; it's not all about the mazes.

From the wording of the statement I think it is quite clear that the previous KMG guidance did not identify this as a particular area or known weakness that required any specific checks. It is telling that they have issued a new technical bulletin rather than highlighting a previously issued bulletin or directive; this is something they had not told owners to do before or they would have very clearly highlighted that they had, which would have been much better for their reputation. At a guess it is probably an area that was given an expected life significantly longer than the 18 years the ride has lasted so had not been subject to rigorous checks yet. The question then is why did it fail? I suppose it's either that it was simply not strong enough by design (unlikely), an unnoticed fault in fabrication (possible), or something about the rides usage, storage or maintenance has caused the fatigue to occur prematurely (likely). I'm going to guess the outer casing has held in water over time, rotting the inside. Whether the fault then lies with KMG for a design which could allow this to happen, or owner for letting it occur, will likely be the subject of some long and expensive court battles...

Statement released from KMG. Doesn't read well for them to be honest; excessive corrosion of an interior (ie not visibly checkable) beam meant an arm simply sheared off. Does not appear to be anything the owner had done wrong or neglected to check ride properly under previous guidelines, new technical bulliten issued to ensure sufficient checks completed to this potential weakness in future. Does not really instill confidence! Pic shows it looks as if it has just torn apart. Dear Mr./Mrs., KMG has conducted an investigation to determine the cause of an accident with a KMG Fireball. In this accident which happened on July 26th, a passenger carrying gondola detached from the supporting sweep arm of the ride also known as a KMG Afterburner. This particular ride was 18 years old. The investigation included a visit to the accident scene in the company of a team of experts at the accident site in Columbus, Ohio, USA. They reviewed video footage of the incident and conducted a metallurgical inspection of the ride. It was determined that excessive corrosion on the interior of the gondola support beam dangerously reduced the beam’s wall thickness over the years. This finally led to the catastrophic failure of the ride during operation. KMG has reviewed the results of the inspection and worked with industry safety experts to develop an inspection protocol in the form of a Safety Bulletin to allow properly inspected and maintained rides to safely reopen. We trust to have you informed sufficiently. Albert Kroon Product Manager

Was probably in the plans and I wasn't paying attention. Is that a curved lift hill? And yep, it all seems a bit average and comes after much oversold crapness, so little interest from me. We'll see.

Ah, didn't know TOTT was paid now. If they have hour long queues for mazes with tickets then that's just incompetent! That's the cycle of poor we are currently stuck in though, the mazes can't be that good as 16000 people are trying to do them in a few hours each evening, high throughput, poor quality, long queues. Ticketing is a way out of that. But yeah, if they tried to upcharge for their current efforts that wouldn't really be good enough, I'm not suggesting that!

From someone that despises fastrack to their very core... I'm all for Halloween extras to be paid. They are extras after all, and it should be done with timed tickets to manage the queues. What we have at the mo, at Thorpe especially but Chessie to an extent, is a mess that makes no one happy once it's even moderately busy. Towers seems to have it about right, one decent high throughput freebie with the supports being able to be better with a lower throughput and ticketing to make it manageable. Would be pleased to see them all go this way.

It's not 'our' coaster, it's Intamin's to sell to whoever they want to. With that thinking we wouldn't be able to have stealth!

It was excluded from the prohibition list as it's model number is outside of the affected, probably because it's older than the one involved so doesn't contain the part which has failed.

Fair enough. I don't remember the last time I saw the queue line video working (I've not been this year). That I've never really thought about it shows that the theme works as a whole I suppose.

I always felt that it is set at 'Thorpe'. It's not necessarily a theme park in the context of the ride, but a place. Does anything within the theme suggest 'Thorpe' is a theme park? It's situated separate enough from the rest of the park to work for me, I don't think that's any leap greater than 'it's a gold mine', or 'it's a canyon' when the wider surroundings suggest otherwise. It's patently not set in America though!

How about one of those deathly free fall into a suspended net upcharge things? I'm all for upcharge with something as unique and thrilling as that.