Going to an amusement park on a Friday night in June should end with a soft pretzel and a long drive home, not a three-hour rescue with firefighters and ladders. But that is exactly what happened to 15 kids and one adult at Adventureland in East Farmingdale, Long Island, when the park’s newest ride decided to quit while everyone was still strapped in 25 feet off the ground.
The ride is called the Wave Twister, and it had only been open since March. On June 19, 2026, it stopped cold around 7:30 p.m., right before the park was set to close at 8. What followed was a slow, careful operation that stretched past 10:30 at night, with crying children, panicked parents, and one very long wait in the dark. Here is what actually went down, and why this one is so unsettling.
Three hours stuck in the air, in the dark
The timeline is the part that sticks with you. Suffolk fire officials got the call around 7:30 p.m. By the time the last rider was finally lowered to the ground, the clock read 10:39 p.m. That is more than three hours sitting in a stalled ride vehicle, legs dangling, with the sun going down and the temperature dropping.
The riders were stuck about 25 feet up, though some witnesses said the ride climbs higher than 50 feet at its peak. Either way, nobody was getting down on their own. According to police, 16 people were on board: a 5-year-old riding with a 40-year-old parent, and a group of kids between the ages of 8 and 12. So picture a sixth-grader trying to stay calm next to a kindergartner, both of them stuck on a broken ride for the length of an entire movie. That is the kind of night you do not forget.
The kids said it got chaotic fast
One of the riders, a sixth-grade student, gave an account that paints the scene better than any official statement could. “They just stopped it completely,” the student told reporters. “And that’s the point where everybody started snapping, crying, screaming at people to call 911. There was no service anywhere, so we were all panicking.”
Think about that for a second. A bunch of kids stuck in the air, and the cell phones that everyone counts on were useless. No bars. No way to call for help themselves. The same student said the mood swung back and forth, with some kids crying and others laughing nervously, just trying to deal with it. “A couple kids were crying. I was trying to calm them down,” the student said. A sixth-grader playing counselor for younger kids on a broken ride is not what anybody signed up for.
Down on the ground, parents were doing whatever they could to stay connected. Some of them ended up talking to their children through Apple Watches, since the kids could not get a regular call out. Imagine standing in a parking lot, looking up at your 8-year-old stuck in the sky, and the only line you have is a tiny watch screen. That detail alone tells you how powerless those families felt.
How firefighters got everyone down
This was not a quick fix. The East Farmingdale Volunteer Fire Company showed up alongside Suffolk County Police Emergency Service Unit and at least one mutual aid department, and they went to work one rider at a time. There is no shortcut for this. You cannot just flip a switch and lower a broken ride full of kids.
Crews used ladders, harnesses, and aerial equipment to reach each rider, secure them, and bring them down individually. That careful, slow approach is exactly why the whole thing took three hours. Every kid had to be strapped in, checked, and guided down while still sitting in a ride that had failed. Ambulances were on standby the entire time, ready for paramedics to look over the children the moment their feet hit the pavement.
The good news, and it is genuinely good news, is that everyone got down without a single reported injury. After a night like that, “no injuries” is about the best outcome you can hope for. The kids were medically evaluated after the rescue and sent home.
What exactly is the Wave Twister?
Here is where it gets interesting. The Wave Twister was not some old rust bucket that should have been retired years ago. It was the brand new headliner, the attraction Adventureland was bragging about for the 2026 season. It opened in March, just a few months before it broke down.
The ride is made by a company called Res Rides, and it was marketed as the first of its kind in the world. It uses two 10-passenger spinning gondolas that swoop along an L-shaped figure-eight track. So it is not a tame little kiddie ride. It spins, it climbs, and it carries 20 people at a time when both cars are loaded. A first-of-its-kind machine sounds exciting on a marketing poster. It sounds a lot less exciting when you are stuck on one in the dark.
To ride alone, you have to be at least 48 inches tall. To ride with an adult, the minimum is 36 inches. That is how a 5-year-old ended up on board with a parent. Those height rules are standard stuff for a ride like this, and they are not what failed here.
One rider called it a ‘weird’ test run
One detail from a season ticketholder makes you raise an eyebrow. Adam Rosen of Melville said he and his son got to ride the Wave Twister during a test run before it officially opened back in March. “We were test dummies for it, and it felt weird in the beginning,” he recalled. “It got smoother and smoother, so I thought they got the things out.”
Now, a new ride feeling rough during early testing is not unusual. Crews tune these machines as they go. But hearing a rider describe the early version as “weird” right after a major breakdown is the kind of comment that is going to come up when investigators start asking questions. Rosen clearly figured the kinks had been worked out. The events of June 19 suggest there was at least one kink left.
What the park is saying
Adventureland did not hide from this one, at least not in its statement. The park leaned on its history first. “For more than 60 years, Adventureland has enjoyed a proud record of safety and guest satisfaction,” the statement read. It went on to say the park understands the concern of the riders and their families, and that it would work with ride consultants to figure out what happened.
The park also said the Wave Twister would stay shut down. “Until further review that ride will not be in service,” the statement added. Park spokesman Mark Smith confirmed the ride would remain closed while they assess what caused the issue. The day after the incident, officials said they still had no update on what went wrong.
One thing worth flagging: the rest of Adventureland reopened the very next day, on Saturday. Workers kept a close watch on the silent Wave Twister while families walked past it to other attractions. The park did credit the first responders too, saying it appreciated “the dedication of the many first responder departments who skillfully assisted in getting our guests off the ride.”
What happens now
As of the days right after the breakdown, the Wave Twister was still closed and an investigation was underway into why it stalled. The park has not said when, or whether, the ride will run again. Nobody has pinned down the cause yet, which is honestly the most frustrating part for the families involved. You want an answer, and right now there is not one.
If there is a takeaway here, it is a simple one. A ride being new does not make it foolproof, and a fancy “first of its kind” label does not guarantee a smooth night out. The kids on the Wave Twister got home safe, which is what matters most. But three hours stuck in the air, with no cell service and a parent reachable only through a smartwatch, is the kind of story that sticks with a family long after the summer ends. The investigators have one job now: find out what failed, so the next group of kids never has to find out the hard way.