According to Multiple Sources from

• Channelnewsasia
• AsiaOne News
• Inquirer.net
• Sky News
• guardian.co.uk

Apparently at approximately 5 pm yesterday 23 December 2008, the Singapore Flyer suffered a power cut off due to a electrical short circuit trapping about 173 passengers for more then 6 hours.

Firefighters were involved in the rescue but only five people had been taken to safety by the time the power came back on.

The 42-storey-high wheel is 165 meters (545 feet) tall, 30 meters larger than Britain’s London Eye, said Great Wheel Corp, which built the attraction.

Read all about it in the links provided above!

- Ok, time for my timely complains and solutions time.

These passengers especially those 5 that were rescued by the fire fighters got more than their money worth! Whahaha (Straits Times says it’s 10 person got down by ropes…)

Not Only that they had gotten EXTRA 6 hours of ride time…or “air time” in the Singapore Flyers… but 5 of them got the once in the life time experience dangling down from a 42 storey high mega buildings! (Straits Times says it’s 10 person got down by ropes…)

These may be much more worth then they think! Many will never get the chance to do what they had done! Except for the lack of air conditioning…and the fear of inability to hold their bladders for 6 hours.

I can’t imagine the anxiety they may experience realizing that they may be either spending their whole night up 42 stories high with full bladder or they had to be dangled down by fire fighters at the risk of a falling to their death….accidentally of course.

The electrical engineers must be working feverish on it for 6 hours trying their best to recover the system to run back again….at 11pm.

I wondered if there are toilets in the flyer or not…maybe they have…I am not sure. (Update: Straits Times 24 Dec 08 says the people pee in plastic bags and pails given by the rescue people)

I certainly applaud those brave DARTs fire fighter to risk their lives for 5 passengers (Straits Times put the number at 10) …it’s almost incredible to even think that such a stunt can be pulled off without incidents.

Now comes the complain.

1. Why the flyers don’t come with emergency back up power supply?
2. Why there is no contingency manual override to “wheel” them down safely?
3. Why there are no proper “escape route” in that building which all buildings should have.
4. Why didn’t the builder don’t have think of such problems earlier to implement the above.

Now comes my wacky solutions!

1. Integrate abseiling down from 42 storey down as one of the attractions!!
2. Add a bungee jumping segment in this too and pump up the ticket price!
3. Add a separate power supply route with fail safe electrical redundancy plan.
4. “Improve” the manual override system to allow manual “turning” of the wheel by other means?
5. Put in contingency toilets in all the capsules just in case of “emergencies”.
6. Put in food & water supply in all capsule to last for a month per passengers just in case.
7. Have a emergency worker to be placed in all capsules just in case of such events to calm people down and give proper instructions.
8. Finally…cut the price of the tickets to attract more “adventurous” tourist or locals.

That’s all that I can think of at 1.29 am! Thanks Jimmy for the sms!!

Update!: The Straits Times says it’s 10 person got rescued instead of 5 and it’s confirmed that there are no toilets or supplies such as food/water/medical kits in the capsules for the trapped victims.

It’s being argued by the person in charge that there “is” 100% redundancy system in placed and should work with the bare minimum of 3 out of 6 drive units.

“So we have 100 per cent redundancy” said Mr Yeo

My question is, 3 out of 6 is 50% redundancy and if the drive units are very close together…it’s zero per cent instead.

The Straits Times put the cause of the power cut off to a “electrical fire” instead of short circuit….or I guess it might be both.

Overall, I think it’s best that the management get 100 per cent redundancy as well….just in case one fail…can be replaced easily.

From the Straits Times, the trapped passengers also got frustrated due to lacking of updates by the intercom.

I feel maybe the system maybe designed to communicate using broadcasting system instead of 1 to 1 communication hence the lack of real “1 to 1″ feedback on the situation on demand.

My suggestion to them is to create code identification to all the capsules and communicate with them one by one or simply have a person to have direct telephone to each capsules in times of emergencies.

Another way is to put a telephone number for them to call in case of emergencies so that they can get direct feedback from the ground.

The other solution by the London Eye is to put CCTV live video conference to the ground level with a spokes person in front of the video camera to talk to all the capsules at once. The operation room should have video footage of all the capsules and the capsules have of the operation room.

Of cause if the power supply is cut totally then the CCTV may not work…so the telephone line should be the redundancy plan.

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