Monday, February 9, 2009

The Breakdown of the Singapore Flyer



Where is the Singapore Flyer?
The Singapore Flyer is located at 30 Raffles Avenue. From City Hall MRT station, it would take you about 10-15 minutes to walk to it. It is the largest observation wheel in the wheel at 165 m tall and is capable of seating up to 784 passengers.

What happened?
On the 23rd of December 2008, the Singapore Flyer broke down because of a small electrical fire. In all, 173 people were left stranded in the Flyer, most of them for over six hours.

Who was affected?
Apart from the people who were stuck in the Flyer, the breakdown of the Flyer on the 23rd of December also affected other groups of people.

Firstly, it affected Singapore's tourism industry. The Singapore Flyer is a major tourist attraction so when it was shut down for a month after 23rd December, tour operators had to find other places that they could take tourists to, which would probably have cost these operators more money. Singapore's reputation for efficiency has suffered too as a result of this breakdown.

Secondly, it affected the business of the shops that are located at the Singapore flyer. Less people went to the Flyer's shops while the Flyer was closed so many tenants complained that they suffered losses. They were so angry that many of them asked the people in charge of the Flyer (called the management) to compensate them. This means that they wanted the management to give them some money to make up for the sales that they have lost.

It is hard to imagine that a 6-hour breakdown can affect so many people, but this shows that we are all interdependant on each other.

Why is this important?
Singapore attracts millions of tourists each year, and if more incidents like these happen, fewer tourists might want to come to our country. If this happens, many people who depend on tourism for their jobs, such as travel agents, hotel staff and store operators at tourist attractions, will suffer.

When did the Flyer resume operations?
The Flyer resumed, or started operating again on 27th January 2009, just in time for the Chinese New Year celebrations.

How does the management of the Flyer intend to prevent such an incident from happening again?
During the closure, the management installed a new back-up system in the Flyer and had international experts certify that it was safe to ride on. They hope that an incident like what happened on December 23rd will never happen again as a result of this new system in place.


What are your thoughts about the December 23rd breakdown? Leave a comment!


If you want to find out more about the Flyer and its breakdown, one website which contains videos of people being rescued manually from the Flyer is http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//RTV/2008/12/24/RTV3608108/


For other information about the Flyer, you might also want to visit its official website at http://www.singaporeflyer.com/


This is a video of part of the construction of the Singapore Flyer. As you can tell, it took a lot of effort and skill to construct it!



Construction Of The Singapore Flyer (Stop Motion Video V1.0) - Funny bloopers R us

37 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think we really must save enough money so when next time the economic
is better,we will have enough money to buy the things we wanted!^_^

Anonymous said...

the above comment is posted by white group1

Anonymous said...

We should help to encourage tourists to continue going to the Singapore Flyer.

Vanessa,Evangeline & Inka
P4 joy

Anonymous said...

The Worker should make the flyer more safe and convient for people to ride on it so no incidents will happen (:


Christine , Vicky Li , Vaishu

Anonymous said...

I think they should be more careful with what they do in the control room. As if 1 damage is made to the controls the whole Flyer will break down so I think is a good idea to build another control room just in case of an emergency.
White group1

Anonymous said...

students should save at least dollar in a day.

Anonymous said...

I think that less people will go to the Singapore Flyer now, so we should encourage them to go there.



Elizabeth Lee, Chloe Chua, Yee Mon Theint

jane said...

I think that the management of the Singapore Flyer should be more responsible as they were in charge of the Singapore Flyer and should make it more safe and convenient so that none of these incidents will happen again.I hope the management should be more careful in future.


Zhi Min,Michelle,Fang Ping and Jocelyn.=D

Anonymous said...

The Singapore Flyer should be safer.By:Kimberly

Anonymous said...

they must be careful with the electrical circuits so that it will not be on fire again.

Anonymous said...

We think that if the Singapore Flyer did not re-open before Chinese New Year,it will affect everybody especially the Singapore Tourism Board.If that incident happens again, everyone will suffer once more. The Singapore Tourism Board and the shops located at the Singapore Flyer will suffer and lose a lot of money...again
The Singapore Flyer should have already installed a back-up system even before the breakdown. As it will affect Singapore's reputation for efficiency.

Meg-Mel,ZhiQi and Caris

Anonymous said...

I hope it is more safe than before to ride the flyer. The management must apologize to the costumers who were stranded for more than six hours.

Zara , Anne , Si Yang , Shu xin

P4 joy

swetha said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

They should build buildings further away from the Singapore flyer so if it breaks down again,it may not affect others as much.


by:Yasmin,Jia Yi,Zhang Xin Ze ,Le Le Htwe.

Janet said...

It should have an in case spare part if the Singapore flyer breaks down,if this happens again, it will affect the amount of tourists coming every year. we also should be alert and if one day another accident like this happens, we should not panic but wait for police to help us get down or wait for the power to be restored.That is a very bad accident but will not be scared. although people died but luckily it is not tourists or else we, Singapore would be in trouble that a certain country might complain on Singapore.


Janet,Samantha,Chloe Ng

Anonymous said...

The Singapore Flyer should be safer.By:Yellow Group1

Anonymous said...

I think Singapore Flyer's manager should be more careful with the controls and not let it go wrong again.

eleanne said...

Well safety features have been added to the singapore flyer already, so we should still go to the singapore flyer!=]

Anonymous said...

I think the incident could have been prevented if the staff at the flyer were trained for emergencies like this. But this accident should not hinder tourists and Singaporeans from going on the Flyer again, as accidents happen

-Rachel

Anonymous said...

I think the Singapore Flyer should be more careful and they should hire some guards to see that nothing will go wrong and everything will go smoothly.

Anonymous said...

I think the accident would not have happened if the staff at the flyer were more careful with the electricity but sometimes, these things cannot be controlled.

Li Ying

Anonymous said...

The Singapore Flyer's manager should be more careful but at least it is safe now as they have added safety features already

*lawanya* said...

singapore's government spent a lot of money to build the flyer.it is very sad for it to breakdown. Now, it has a second control room and so it will be safe.

OdEliA♥ said...

tAk0yAki-bAlls:) here.

I think the Singapore flyer break down will affect the shops at the Sigapore flyer...

Anonymous said...

I think the Singapore
Flyer should be more careful

Anonymous said...

singapore flyer must move very well and will not stop.they should be okay.

Rui Lin
4 Faith

Anonymous said...

They should be more aware of how their equipment works.

Done by;pei ern and sima

Anonymous said...

i hope it will be better and safer this year and many people will enjoy the flyer!




Red group 1

Anonymous said...

We hope that this will not happen again.

Keerthana and Danna
4faith

Anonymous said...

we were very shocked about this problem and we would like to say that peaple should be careful and be alert regarding this incident.


elysha daleni desiree

Anonymous said...

We must save money for any other emergency.

Anonymous said...

The above one is Kathreine,kyla and shaamini

Anonymous said...

I think it would be safer this year and it will be a nice place.




alina,sabrina and zhu ziuan

red group 2

Anonymous said...

They should be careful when they build the flyer

Anonymous said...

Since safety features had been added to the Singapore Flyer,it is safer for us to go there.
Sandra♥
6Faith

Anonymous said...

Hi Miss Goh,

i like to buy dolls but we dont

have not that much money i learn

not to spend money on not nice

things

Love Priya

Anonymous said...

We should not spend our own money on useless things that we doesn't need to buy.




From [Fiorentia]

p2 peace