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The Shame Of The Singapore Flyer
They called it the "WORLD CLASS ATTRACTION" & yet it the third time spoilt.
SINGAPORE: The world's largest observation wheel, the Singapore Flyer grounded to a halt at about 5pm on Tuesday. At about 7pm, the Flyer was still not moving.
A passenger who was stuck in one of the capsules said there was a sudden jerk before the wheel stopped turning.
An announcement a few minutes later said there was a technical error.
Mdm Lim Boon Siang, a passenger stuck in one of the capsules, said: “About 4.30pm or 4.15pm, after we passed the maximum altitude, it suddenly jerked to a stop and then for a good five to ten minutes we waited.
"We thought that this could be something normal. And then there was a message that came in that said that it has stopped temporary. Everybody was calm, but initially the air-con was switched off, so it was very hot due to the evening sun. They opened up the air ventilator, and the air-con if I am not wrong is working now."
She said there were about 10 other people in her cabin including children.
When contacted, a Singapore Flyer spokesperson confirmed the incident and said a technical team is trying to fix the problem.
The spokesperson added at the time of the incident, 23 capsules were occupied with over 100 passengers.
The spokesperson said: "Their safety was never at risk while they were in the capsules. Every capsule is equipped with an intercom system which is linked to the control room for passengers and the control room personnel to communicate.
"Our staff promptly informed passengers of the situation and reassured them that measures were being taken to fix the technical problem. There are also surveillance cameras installed in every capsule for the operations team to monitor what is going on in all capsules."
A ride on the 165-metre tall wheel, about 42 storeys high, typically takes half an hour and each capsule can take up to 28 people.
Since the Flyer was operational in February this year, this is the third time it has encountered problems.
The last time there were reports of a technical glitch was just three weeks ago on December 4. The wheel was stuck for nearly five hours due to extreme weather conditions and some 70 people were affected.
No Crisis Management Plan
There are plenty of lessons to be learnt from this unfortunate incident. Why Spore Flyer do not has a crisis management plan in place. If they don't have they should look into it immediately. A well designed crisis management plan and with staff well trained in crisis handling would have helped staff of Spore Flyer to manage the crisis more effectively. Do not assume accident will not happen. Therefore, companies handling hundreds of customers daily must be prepared to react professionally in event of a crisis. A proper crisis management plan must be in placed and regular exercises must be conducted to ensure staff will be able to react effectively in a crisis. Companies that can react and handle crisis effectively and professionally will be able to recover their image and reputation faster. They will also be able to win back customers faster than companies that handle their crisis poorly.
First of all, the management need to evaluate why the failure was not preempted and failure procedures not put in place? If they had planned for a rush job to begin with, thinking of making the F1 race event and failed to take into all accounts of failure due to power, equipments, man-made decisions, lightning, etc... then the Management need to be sacked for mismanagement. The owner need to ask them what makes a World Class Flyer? Surely they had experience in london, KL, etc ... and the precautions taken in even of a failure?
Secondly the 6 hours delay is inexcusable when the poor tourists and locals are suffering when the carriages do not have proper emergency drinks, etc ..... The bad planning to obviously to cut costs are why they are so unprepared.
Thirdly, surely they should have dry run and planned failure procedures? Unless the management and staffs are ill equipped and when confronted with a failre, they just could not react to solve the issues.
Fourthly, every big events where the impact is tourism, the management need to make all necessary backups to equipments, emergency power supply, fail-safe hardwares and proper trainings in staffs. This failure showed the complacent mentality plaguing the Industry when the people in charge fails to analyse the what-ifs and what to dos when incidents happen.
Fifthly, they should have experienced staffs to man the Flyers like checks and counter-checks each day before and after operating. They have to plan procedures and rescue procedures in the event of any failure ranging from lightning, high winds, stormy weathers, sabotages, terrorist attacks, staffs negligence, equipment failures, power disruptions etc ....
Sixthly, those affected by the incidents should be fully compensated and insurance should be paid to affected persons. They should pay those injured and not just refunding rides. The poor PR shows how badly managed they operate and the 6 hours delay are not acceptable at all in any World Class operatives.
The main crucial failure - human decisions and not taking care that their rescue plans can be hampered by wind, rain and other factors. The design and wheel equipments should have complementary devices or standby equipment to rotate the wheel carriages even in power failure. Like a lift, when there is a power failure of sorts, each carriages can still come to a rest at ground level. A definite re-engineering is needed here. Maybe our ST Engrg can assist them in making the Flyer safer and more robust.
When humans are involved, the tendency to not plan at all is greater as they are not experienced enough.
Flyers equipments should be re-designed and unless their safety and checks are done, the operator should not be allowed to operate until the Authority are satisified. In fact, did they consult Civil Defence on the Rescue after 6 hours of delay? They could have sent in a crane with carriage/platforms to bring down frightened passengers.
Unless people plan for all what-ifs, they will soon face another incident where they may find deaths or injuries can occur ...
Sadly, the Singapore Flyer was suppose to be the latest gizmos and yet the equipment and human failures show that somewhere along the line, some bad decisions were made to fail to prepare. Many a times, they failed to plan for failures and when failure struck, they show up the weakness like a sore thumb.
The only solution forward:
1. Re-design the equipments
2. have safety devices to allow wheels to come back to the ground to allow carriages to disembark
3. doubling up of devices in cases of failures or sabotages
4. Rescue drills and maybe Safety Cranes should have been used
5. revise their procedures whenever there is a device failure and Civil Def should be called in
6. why were they no water/emergency kits
7. study all other flyers operators and may be they can spot the weaknesses and make drastic improvements
8. have proper insurances to pay costs of injuries and deaths
9. change their management and employ experienced staffs who should have proper certifications and training
10. work hand-in-hand with Emergency services like Police, Civil Def, Hospitals, etc ... should there be an incident
I find this lesson important for all to learn as breakdowns and failures can always happen. Hope they will resume after all above steps are taken and authority has inspected the operatives certificates in ensuring the tourists are not affected again in 6 hours delays without water and food! Shame on the management. Shame on the Singapore's Flyer.
No Time Frame To The Reopen
There are plenty of lessons to be learnt from this unfortunate incident. Why Spore Flyer do not has a crisis management plan in place. If they don't have they should look into it immediately. A well designed crisis management plan and with staff well trained in crisis handling would have helped staff of Spore Flyer to manage the crisis more effectively. Do not assume accident will not happen. Therefore, companies handling hundreds of customers daily must be prepared to react professionally in event of a crisis. A proper crisis management plan must be in placed and regular exercises must be conducted to ensure staff will be able to react effectively in a crisis. Companies that can react and handle crisis effectively and professionally will be able to recover their image and reputation faster. They will also be able to win back customers faster than companies that handle their crisis poorly.
First of all, the management need to evaluate why the failure was not preempted and failure procedures not put in place? If they had planned for a rush job to begin with, thinking of making the F1 race event and failed to take into all accounts of failure due to power, equipments, man-made decisions, lightning, etc... then the Management need to be sacked for mismanagement. The owner need to ask them what makes a World Class Flyer? Surely they had experience in london, KL, etc ... and the precautions taken in even of a failure?
Secondly the 6 hours delay is inexcusable when the poor tourists and locals are suffering when the carriages do not have proper emergency drinks, etc ..... The bad planning to obviously to cut costs are why they are so unprepared.
Thirdly, surely they should have dry run and planned failure procedures? Unless the management and staffs are ill equipped and when confronted with a failre, they just could not react to solve the issues.
Fourthly, every big events where the impact is tourism, the management need to make all necessary backups to equipments, emergency power supply, fail-safe hardwares and proper trainings in staffs. This failure showed the complacent mentality plaguing the Industry when the people in charge fails to analyse the what-ifs and what to dos when incidents happen.
Fifthly, they should have experienced staffs to man the Flyers like checks and counter-checks each day before and after operating. They have to plan procedures and rescue procedures in the event of any failure ranging from lightning, high winds, stormy weathers, sabotages, terrorist attacks, staffs negligence, equipment failures, power disruptions etc ....
Sixthly, those affected by the incidents should be fully compensated and insurance should be paid to affected persons. They should pay those injured and not just refunding rides. The poor PR shows how badly managed they operate and the 6 hours delay are not acceptable at all in any World Class operatives.
The main crucial failure - human decisions and not taking care that their rescue plans can be hampered by wind, rain and other factors. The design and wheel equipments should have complementary devices or standby equipment to rotate the wheel carriages even in power failure. Like a lift, when there is a power failure of sorts, each carriages can still come to a rest at ground level. A definite re-engineering is needed here. Maybe our ST Engrg can assist them in making the Flyer safer and more robust.
When humans are involved, the tendency to not plan at all is greater as they are not experienced enough.
Flyers equipments should be re-designed and unless their safety and checks are done, the operator should not be allowed to operate until the Authority are satisified. In fact, did they consult Civil Defence on the Rescue after 6 hours of delay? They could have sent in a crane with carriage/platforms to bring down frightened passengers.
Unless people plan for all what-ifs, they will soon face another incident where they may find deaths or injuries can occur ...
Sadly, the Singapore Flyer was suppose to be the latest gizmos and yet the equipment and human failures show that somewhere along the line, some bad decisions were made to fail to prepare. Many a times, they failed to plan for failures and when failure struck, they show up the weakness like a sore thumb.
The only solution forward:
1. Re-design the equipments
2. have safety devices to allow wheels to come back to the ground to allow carriages to disembark
3. doubling up of devices in cases of failures or sabotages
4. Rescue drills and maybe Safety Cranes should have been used
5. revise their procedures whenever there is a device failure and Civil Def should be called in
6. why were they no water/emergency kits
7. study all other flyers operators and may be they can spot the weaknesses and make drastic improvements
8. have proper insurances to pay costs of injuries and deaths
9. change their management and employ experienced staffs who should have proper certifications and training
10. work hand-in-hand with Emergency services like Police, Civil Def, Hospitals, etc ... should there be an incident
I find this lesson important for all to learn as breakdowns and failures can always happen. Hope they will resume after all above steps are taken and authority has inspected the operatives certificates in ensuring the tourists are not affected again in 6 hours delays without water and food! Shame on the management. Shame on the Singapore's Flyer.
No Time Frame To The Reopen
No timeframe for reopening of Flyer: Minister
SINGAPORE - There is no timeframe for reopening the world's biggest observation wheel because a review must be conducted into a breakdown which left 173 people trapped, a cabinet minister was quoted as saying Sunday.
Police are investigating after the Singapore Flyer stopped turning on Tuesday night, leaving scores of tourists stuck for more than six hours.
The Flyer's operating licence has been suspended while police investigate and it remains unclear how long the suspension will last.
"It's not something I can give you a timeframe just yet," K. Shanmugam, Second Minister for Home Affairs, was quoted as saying on the website of 938Live radio.
Steven Yeo, the Flyer's general manager, said earlier a small electrical fire had led to the stoppage, which he described as the fourth and most serious at the attraction since it opened in February.
"Given the nature of the incident and the fact that this is not the first time it has happened, obviously we need to be satisfied about what exactly happened first," Shanmugam was quoted as telling reporters.
Shanmugam, who is also Minister for Law, said the inquiry must also examine "what are the future probabilities" of a similar incident.
"We understand obviously the need for the Singapore Flyer to restart as quickly as possible. And it's got to be balanced against the public safety."
Most passengers were stuck inside the Flyer's enclosed cabins until power was restored but 10 escaped using rescue harnesses. Two were taken to hospital, officials said.
Police have said the Flyer would be allowed to resume operation once it has been certified as safe by an internationally-recognised body that assesses safety standards for amusement rides.
"Police investigations would cover how this problem occurred, how it can be prevented and what measures the operator can put in place to enhance passenger safety," they said in a statement Thursday.
Equipment, Manpower or Ill-luck
SINGAPORE - There is no timeframe for reopening the world's biggest observation wheel because a review must be conducted into a breakdown which left 173 people trapped, a cabinet minister was quoted as saying Sunday.
Police are investigating after the Singapore Flyer stopped turning on Tuesday night, leaving scores of tourists stuck for more than six hours.
The Flyer's operating licence has been suspended while police investigate and it remains unclear how long the suspension will last.
"It's not something I can give you a timeframe just yet," K. Shanmugam, Second Minister for Home Affairs, was quoted as saying on the website of 938Live radio.
Steven Yeo, the Flyer's general manager, said earlier a small electrical fire had led to the stoppage, which he described as the fourth and most serious at the attraction since it opened in February.
"Given the nature of the incident and the fact that this is not the first time it has happened, obviously we need to be satisfied about what exactly happened first," Shanmugam was quoted as telling reporters.
Shanmugam, who is also Minister for Law, said the inquiry must also examine "what are the future probabilities" of a similar incident.
"We understand obviously the need for the Singapore Flyer to restart as quickly as possible. And it's got to be balanced against the public safety."
Most passengers were stuck inside the Flyer's enclosed cabins until power was restored but 10 escaped using rescue harnesses. Two were taken to hospital, officials said.
Police have said the Flyer would be allowed to resume operation once it has been certified as safe by an internationally-recognised body that assesses safety standards for amusement rides.
"Police investigations would cover how this problem occurred, how it can be prevented and what measures the operator can put in place to enhance passenger safety," they said in a statement Thursday.
Equipment, Manpower or Ill-luck
Who then you suggest the blame should fall on? Fate? Equipment, manpower or ill-luck?
The issue is Responsibility and the Management is the one who should have ensured that all care and steps are taken. These delays show the lack of experience and bad equipments to rescue the stranded tourists (newspaper reported 7 hours delay, 3-4 hospitalised ... ) what if there is a heart attack or sickness?
The point of asking them to be Responsible and be Accountable for putting up a $240 million wheel as indicated shows why they could have spend more to ensure a fail-safe system. If this same company builds a plane, people will not want to sit in them... their failing record shows that they are ill-equipped to handle the situation. In fact the design is flawed - it should have backups, redundancy, safety devices to turn the wheels even in a power disruption ....
While we hope they will take this crisis in stride, they have to do a lot more to guarantee the Safety of all tourists and the impact of a disaster if they fail again. People will shun them and worst - complete shutdown and removal .... Unless the management plan longterm and starts to invest in better equipments, trainings, etc ... they simply cannot be granted a license to fail.
Business plan to succeed but if they fail to consider failures, then they do not deserve to be in Business.
They need to ask the crucial question - what can prevent a repeat of a failure of the Wheel? Do they have a fail-safe system? Unlikely right now. So other flyers will encounter the same problem if the power fails and this is why they need to re-design their flyers.
The issue is Responsibility and the Management is the one who should have ensured that all care and steps are taken. These delays show the lack of experience and bad equipments to rescue the stranded tourists (newspaper reported 7 hours delay, 3-4 hospitalised ... ) what if there is a heart attack or sickness?
The point of asking them to be Responsible and be Accountable for putting up a $240 million wheel as indicated shows why they could have spend more to ensure a fail-safe system. If this same company builds a plane, people will not want to sit in them... their failing record shows that they are ill-equipped to handle the situation. In fact the design is flawed - it should have backups, redundancy, safety devices to turn the wheels even in a power disruption ....
While we hope they will take this crisis in stride, they have to do a lot more to guarantee the Safety of all tourists and the impact of a disaster if they fail again. People will shun them and worst - complete shutdown and removal .... Unless the management plan longterm and starts to invest in better equipments, trainings, etc ... they simply cannot be granted a license to fail.
Business plan to succeed but if they fail to consider failures, then they do not deserve to be in Business.
They need to ask the crucial question - what can prevent a repeat of a failure of the Wheel? Do they have a fail-safe system? Unlikely right now. So other flyers will encounter the same problem if the power fails and this is why they need to re-design their flyers.
Willing to spend $240m to build a wheel, and rescue operation is by wire harness.... Unbelieveable..... A big joke and really, it is such a big disgrace....I am really speechless....
Who is the top gun who forsee and approve emergency operation in the first place???
For goodness sake, Singapore Tourism Board and all relevant parties-- better still down and think. If nothing good come out of it, please let the flyer remain shut and don't further embarrass Singapore on the world map.
Please don't wear such a big hat if your head cannot fit.
Who is the top gun who forsee and approve emergency operation in the first place???
For goodness sake, Singapore Tourism Board and all relevant parties-- better still down and think. If nothing good come out of it, please let the flyer remain shut and don't further embarrass Singapore on the world map.
Please don't wear such a big hat if your head cannot fit.
News Obtained From CNA (Channel News Asia)
1 comments:
Ya, the singapore flyer management is super lousy & cock-up.
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