Skyliner Stuck in the Sky at Walt Disney World

Update Monday, October 21

Reedy Creek has released 911 audio tapes from the night of the incident, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The tapes included multiple calls from distraught passengers stuck aboard the Skyliner, including one 11-year-old girl who was panicked about her epileptic mother who was trapped onboard with her.

“Get her out of here as fast as you can, people!” the girl says in the call. “I am going to sue Disney for this!”

Another call came form a man saying his wife was going in and out of consciousness. “My wife just passed out and came back … I’m just getting really concerned now, it’s near two hours … she’s breathing, she’s just in a lot of pain … oh gosh, she’s burning up,” the man told the 911 dispatcher. “This is bad. She’s not going to last long.”

The Disney Skyliner has since reopened and the Disney Parks Blog released the following statement:

  • “Following a complete review with the manufacturer, we’ve made adjustments to our processes and training, and we are improving how we communicate with guests during their flight with Disney Skyliner. We again offer our deepest apologies to the guests impacted by the malfunction that resulted in extended operating delays on Oct. 5.”

Update Monday, 6:22p Eastern
According to MyNews13, 3 people were transported to the hospital during Saturday night’s incident. It sounds like two people were evacuated from a gondola and transported along with a third person from a different gondola. All have now been released.

Update Monday, 4:04p Eastern
Disney has issued a new statement regarding Saturday’s incident:
We have a team diligently looking into the cause of the malfunction on the Epcot line of the Disney Skyliner.  We have been in contact with the guests, many of whom were on the Skyliner for more than three hours until we were able to restart the system. We express our sincere apologies for the inconvenience and continue to work with each guest individually.

Update: Monday, 11:35a Eastern

As seen below, WaltDisneyWorld.com now lists the Skyliner as temporarily closed. It has not reopened since Saturday’s incident. However, there have been tweets this morning indicating empty gondolas have been running this morning.

Update Sunday, 11:54a Eastern

Skyliner remains closed this morning. Disney has released the following statement:

One of the three Disney Skyliner routes experienced an unexpected downtime Saturday evening. As a result, the Skyliner will be closed while we look into the details surrounding this downtime. We apologize for this situation, and we are working with each guest individually regarding impacts to their visit with us.

Update Sunday, 12:17a Eastern
According to BlogMickey.com, everyone has now been evacuated:

Update Saturday, 11:53p Eastern

There is as of yet no official word from Disney on what caused the incident. There have been social media reports of both a power failure and an incident in a station as this tweet shows. But no confirmation at all from Disney:

Update Saturday, 11:36p Eastern

A reporter who happened to be on a stuck gondola

Update Saturday, 11:17p Eastern

Apparently not everyone was stressed from being stuck on the Skyliner. This is adorable!

Update Saturday, 11:07p Eastern

There are now a couple of tweets indicating the gondolas are now moving

Update Saturday, 10:55p Eastern

More evacuation tweets:

Update Saturday, 10:38p Eastern

According to the Orlando Sentinel, a Disney spokesperson has said:

A Walt Disney World spokesperson confirmed there was an issue and said there are no reported injuries. There was “unexpected downtime” on the Skyliner.

Update Saturday, 10:03p Eastern

More form the evacuation:

https://twitter.com/WaltyDis/status/1180661558696927232

Update: Saturday, 9:50p Eastern

A tweet from a guest looking in the emergency kit onboard the skyliner

https://twitter.com/DrewDisneyDude/status/1180660439795011585

Update Saturday, 9:36p Eastern

Someone has tweeted a video of ladder up near a Skyliner vehicle

Update:Saturday, 9:25p Eastern

More tweets from the scene:

Original Post:

Numerous guests are reporting on social media that they are currently stuck on the new Disney Skyliner at Walt Disney World. None of the tweets seem to indicate the guests are in any major discomfort – other than the annoyance of being stuck in the sky for more than a half hour. One guest has just posted a short video of the fire department on the scene.

Here are a few other tweets from the evening

https://twitter.com/imHi_larry_ous/status/1180643564260401152

We’ll update as more information becomes available.