Suspicious device under disney world bus

[famsen]

I agree that Disney did the right thing with pulling ths busses for inspection, and I doubt other than a few people who will never be happy no matter what Disney did, said,or compensated them(Ive seen more than a few of those when I worked for the mouse)youll find anyone to disagree.

Some of us that are in certain fields, look differently at certain things, such as this.I dont want to go into details, since I dont know all of the facts, but on the surface some of us are concerened.At least until an explanation comes out.

I agree with everything you said. Disney did the right thing but I too am concerned. The more time that elapses without an explanation, the more concerning it is to me. I also would have expected a press release by now if it was just a prank or something a bus rolled over. It should never have been there.

 

[DisneyInsider]

There appears to be some newer information released in the case today...which leads you to wonder...is someone trying to track the bus for good or evil?

From:
http://cfnews13.com/News/Local/2009/...ansmitter.html

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The suspicious device found on a Disney bus yesterday afternoon that brought all busing to a screeching halt Thursday may be a transponder, a type of transmitter.

 

[Luckymommyx2]

There appears to be some newer information released in the case today...which leads you to wonder...is someone trying to track the bus for good or evil?

From:
http://cfnews13.com/News/Local/2009/...ansmitter.html

----
The suspicious device found on a Disney bus yesterday afternoon that brought all busing to a screeching halt Thursday may be a transponder, a type of transmitter.

The link didn't work for me and I can't seem to find any info from WESH or the Sentinel with that update. Do you have an updated link?

 

[truck1]

The link didn't work for me and I can't seem to find any info from WESH or the Sentinel with that update. Do you have an updated link?

Try this. This is the story that CFnews 13 ran. If its true and someone from IT or someone else from maintanance put it on it says a lot for Disney record keeping. Assuming of course its Disneys transmitter.I would love to know what bus number it was.

LAKE BUENA VISTA -- The suspicious device found on a Disney bus yesterday afternoon that brought all busing to a screeching halt Thursday may be a transponder, a type of transmitter.

The sheriff's office says they haven't ruled out sinister motives.

"The investigation into the incident remains ongoing and nothing has been taken off of the table," said sheriff's spokesman Jim Solomons on Friday. "We know conclusively that the object was not explosive nor was it dangerous. It has been described as being similar in appearance to an electronic transponder, a device that would be used to track the movement or location of a vehicle."

Although the device has been handed over to Disney, detectives are working with them to find out what exactly it's purpose was.

Disney said they're still "researching" the device and the bus' service records to find out if it was placed there for a reason.

The incident unfolded dramatically around 3 p.m. Thursday when a maintenance worker found the device attached to the bottom of a bus during a routine inspection.

Disney evacuated employees in the maintenance area and suspended bus service while they inspected 300 vehicles.

As a result, several parks were kept open an extra hour, and taxi service was expanded.

During that time, Disney provided extra transportation to thousands of visitors at the resort. Because of the backup, some parks extended hours to accommodate everyone.

Bomb squad members determined that the device was not explosive.

Investigators still don't know what kind of information the device was transmitting or if it was even working when they found it.

Today, Disney said officials are reassuring their guests that all buses have been checked thoroughly.

They would not elaborate on any new security measures they have in place.

This isn't the first problem for Disney transportation this year.

In July, Sky 13 was over the scene after several people were sent to the hospital when a Disney bus crashed near the contemporary resort. The bus was changing lanes when it hit another bus.

And just days before that, there was a deadly monorail crash. One train slammed into another at the Transportation and Ticket Center, killing monorail driver Austin Wuennenberg.

A final report is not out, but it appears a worker may have failed to throw a track switch while trying to take one monorail out of service.

 

[Luckymommyx2]

Thanks truck. My initial reaction is one of concern. There are too many questions that are not answered nor may they ever be answered. I'll be waiting for any updates to this story...

 

[truck1]

Your welcome. I am starting to go from concern to thinking that the box they found is actually part of one of the numerous tests that Disney Transport has run over the years, and never taken off the bus.I wouldnt be surprised that someone put it on the bus as a "test" of sorts either.
Most of the testing Disney has done with the bus fleet, very few things have actually been implemented for one reason or another.Alot of the test pieces, were never taken completey off the busses for one reason or another either, and I doubt any one person knows what bus was being used as a test bed for what, since they pulled busses that happend to be in FIW as a spare, or coming out of maintanance at random.
For a while there was a plan to put AVLs,(Automatic Vehicle Locators) and black boxes into busses, so that at certain times of the day, say a DHS bus was returning from the All Stars, and AK needed help with its All Star route, the DHS bus would get a signal to go to AK, p/u for the All Stars, the go back to DHS.The black boxes were supposed to relay bus "health" info to maintanance,on a regular basis,so that when the bus came in for fuel at its normal time, maintanace would already know what was wrong with the bus, and either a spare bus was waiting, or the replacement pieces were waiting.Afaik, neither of those plans were implemented.
They have a different system now in that when they hook up the fuel pumps(They have special positive lock pressurized fuel nozzles) to the busses, there is a connection that is made by computer at the same time, that gives the time, bus number, amount of fuel taken on board, where,and the fuel burn per hour.
There was one bus we called the talking bus. When you stepped on the turn signals, ( the turn signals were like high beam buttons on the floor) the bus would announce CAUTION! TURNING..............When the doors opened or closed you would get a similar announcement. CAUTION DOORS OPENING! If you were not carefull, when you spieled to the guests where you were going, the cars next to you knew also, since there was a switch you had to throw for internal and external speakers. We could always tell when that bus was on time, by the number of drivers that never moved the switch.That test lasted about 2 months and the equipment was disabled, but left on the bus anyway.Now that I think about it there was 2 of those busses, with 2 different systems.

Anyway, I am going to keep watching as my mom told me that there was a picture somewhere on one of the news channels of the box in question.

 

[seashoreCM]

A major problem (haven't seen any recorded instances on The DIS yet) that an incident like this can cause is missing of Magical Express buses back to the airport.

 

[truck1]

A major problem (haven't seen any recorded instances on The DIS yet) that an incident like this can cause is missing of Magical Express buses back to the airport.

Yep. And considering that it happened on a thurs DCL busses to the airport would be in the same boat. Though Disney was paying for taxis and supplying vans to move people.

 

[truck1]

Heres the latest. Disney has Identified the object under the bus.What really scares me was that this sensor was under the bus for 11 years and now someone noticed it.


Disney Identifies Device Found Attached To Bus
Discovery Of Device Shuts Down Transit At Walt Disney World
POSTED: 8:22 pm EDT September 21, 2009

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- A device found mounted under a Walt Disney World bus last Thursday was an old tire-pressure monitor, Disney spokeswoman Andrea Finger told WESH 2 News.

Refresh WESH.com often and watch WESH 2 News TONIGHT at 11 for the latest updates.
The discovery of the item prompted the Orange County Sheriff's Office bomb squad to check out the suspicious object under the bus, which led the resort to shut down its vast transportation system.

Finger described the device as a prototype that was installed in 1998 on one bus to monitor tire pressure with wireless technology. A maintenance crew unfamiliar with it, however, reported the device, which prompted the resort to suspend bus service as a precaution and check hundreds of its businesses.

 

[Tozzie]

Heres the latest. Disney has Identified the object under the bus.What really scares me was that this sensor was under the bus for 11 years and now someone noticed it.

Could it be that others noticed it and knew what it was and didn't bother with it?

 

[truck1]

Could it be that others noticed it and knew what it was and didn't bother with it?

Possible yes. Likely no, for a few reasons.
Bus maintanace has a high turnover rate, so its not very likely that a older (mechanic with senority) would be doing the oil changes and inspections.
ive dealt with the mechanics when I drove those busses, and gotten blank looks alot of times pointing out downable issues (a serious safety issue on a bus, such as failed brake tests).Another time I pointed out that a bus moved with the back doors open. A guest had leaned on the back doors(which they werent supposed to do to begin with)and the doors opend, and his foot slipped between the doors.The brakes on the bus never came on like they were supposed to.(Theres an interlock so the bus wont move while the back doors are open.Even if the bus is at hwy speed the brakes will come on)Long story short the mechanic oked the bus, and I refused to take it back. 2 supervisors and a lot of dirty looks from the mechaninc later,and both the bus and maintanance sup apologizing to me, I got a different bus, and my original bus went to the shop for a sensor replacement.

Theres always one or more mechanics like that floating around, and there are some good ones there I would trust if they said this is ok.For the most part, maintanance and bus ops have an agreement that maint cannot have more than a certain number of busses in the yard at any given time.So what happens is that most of the time a bus is rushed back out to keep the numbers up and things get missed. We had a running nickname for where we picked up the "fixed"busses. It was the not quite ready line, or the almost ready line. Weve lost track of how many times we went to pickup a bus and the bus wouldnt build air pressure, then find out it went up there for a bad air compressor to begin with. The best was when we picked up a bus, and found the mechanics tools still in it, with spare parts on the seats.( and yes the ready line was separate from the down line)