Characters In Flight Balloon suspended

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Characters In Flight Balloon suspended

Just saw a tweet about this and a news alert dated July 1, 2012 on allears.net:

The Characters in Flight Balloon was removed from Downtown Disney (Orlando) 2 nights ago. Balloon employees at DD stated that there was an incident at Ocean Park in Hong Kong so all balloons are being inspected.

http://allears.net/news/hnews.htm

Here's a link to the news story on the original incident that prompted the suspension:

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=11&art_id=123940&sid=36878689&con_type=3&d_str=20120629&fc=7

Vettelover's picture
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WOW!! I sure hope that it is only a temporary suspension and not a permanent one. We really enjoy it when we go to downtown Disney and it's a must do on our list.

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JoAnn C's picture
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Good they are inspecting all balloons. Better to be safe than sorry. I'd like to try this some day so I hope it's not permanent.

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WyckedPhoenix's picture
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I hope they are able to bring this back. I was hoping to ride when we were there in October but there were clouds and rain on our DTD day so it was grounded.

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I'm glad that they took it down for inspections, it's always good to see that they really do have our safety at the forefront.

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Kristen K. wrote:
I'm glad that they took it down for inspections, it's always good to see that they really do have our safety at the forefront.

True, but I believe they were more or less forced into it because of the Hong Kong incident. I think that if the Hong Kong incident had never happened that the DTD Characters in Flight balloon would still be flying.

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MrHub's picture
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More then likely Vettelover you are right.

Jessi5989's picture
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I was wondering where it was the other day when I was there!

salejune's picture
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We did this for the first time last Christmas.... I sure hope they'll open it again... great views!

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Nancy D's picture
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I had read somewhere that the balloon was due to come down sometime soon for a replacement anyhow...sometime before Christmas, so the Hong Kong incident just got the ball rolling.

I hope no one was hurt in Hong Kong...has anyone heard if there were injuries in that incident?

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Yes according to the article there were five injuries.

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=11&art_id=123940&sid=36878689&con_type=3&d_str=20120629&fc=7

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Disney uses that same caution on all rides and shows. That's why BTM was closed. The derailment in Paris DL made them re-work the cars and track at all the other parks.
I look at it like this...airline me hanics inspect planes all the time but right after an accident they go into 'super check' mode. Better safer than sorry.
Dee

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