skyway? what happend to it?

[4orm]

I think thats what it was called...the little gondolas that took you over fantasy land. When did these shut down?

 

[WDWFOREVER]

They shut down a couple of years ago. DH really loved these as he used to take photographs. Me, I was glad to see the back of them as I'm scared of heights and to have to go on them was torture for me! Especially when he and DS thought it great fun to rock them a little bit .......

 

[KathyTX]

Around 1997 or 1998, I think.

There was a fatal accident there shortly before that involving a CM... We had a similar ride at the State Fair of Texas in the 1970s, and it was removed after a fatal accident involving several riders.

All in all, not a very safe attraction, it would seem.

 

[LibertyBelle]

Originally posted by KathyTX

All in all, not a very safe attraction, it would seem.

The accident that occured at WDW on the skyway was not due to an unsafe ride... It was a CM that was were he was not suppossed to be. It was a tragic accident and it is never easy to say it was an error on the persons fault (especially when they pass away due to their injuries). But he was a custodial CM that was in a location that had restricted access and he should not have been there.

They had planned on taking the Skyway out anyway to make way for a new attraction that they were planning for the old 20,000 leagues under the sea area (but they were and still are having issues draining the water from the lagoon). The accident just made them close it sooner than they had planned.

 

[Jestocost]

I think we've got most of the story here, but not quite all of it. This info is excerpted from Snopes.com.

In February 1999, a park custodian at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom was killed when the skyway started up unexpectedly while he was cleaning one of its platforms. Raymond Barlow, 65, was sweeping off a narrow skyway platform inaccessible to park guests an hour after the park's 9:00 A.M. opening when other cast members, unaware of his presence, started up the ride. Barlow, startled by the approaching gondola, grabbed onto it and tried to climb inside; he fell 40 feet into a flower bed, hitting a tree on the way down, and died.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration later ruled that the area in which Barlow had been working violated federal safety codes and fined Walt Disney World $4,500 for a "serious" violation of safety standards. Several months later, in November 1999, the Magic Kingdom's skyway was permanently closed.

As was the case with the closing of the Disneyland skyway in 1994, the decision to close the attraction was based on factors other than its being involved in a recent accidental death. The Skyway was not dismantled out of a fear of similar incidents, but for a variety of economic factors, including the attraction's age and carrying capacity, staffing requirements, maintenance costs, and the expense required to upgrade the Skyway to conform to newer safety and access standards.

The full Snopes.com account can be read here:

http://www.snopes.com/disney/parks/skyway.htm