Attendees at the National Cherry Festival in Michigan became heroes when they spotted a ride that was malfunctioning. It was the Magic Carpet Ride attraction, which is supposed to spin in circles on a single axis while riders are seated, but the base of it began to rock and lift off the ground with each circle of the arm.
The first person to help was Joy Ogemaw who said. "I just heard like a really loud bang and then I looked up, and it was like right in front of me. It was like scraping, and then it started going faster, because it wasn't stopping them started going faster, and then it started like rocking a little bit back and forth and then it started like going more and then like, it was to the point where the base of it was like leaning way back and I was like, that looks like it's about to like fall back into the river right now and I was like, it was just, I cannot believe what I was seeing."
Once Joy grabbed the base a couple joined her and within a few seconds more than a dozen others grabbed the base to steady it. Because of their efforts no one was hurt, and the ride has been taken down for repairs.
"Just goes to show you what type of people live here in Traverse City, that they without even a second thought will go right over and do whatever they need to, you know for one of their own,” says Joe Evans with Arnold Amusement. “And we think it's remarkable that they were willing to help you know keeping themselves safe on the outside, but doing whatever they could do, to slow the right to stop the ride.”