The two dozen people stranded for about two hours on the Stratosphere ride at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas, were safely lowered to the ground at about 11:30 p.m. Friday.
Here's what we had earlier:
At about 9:15 p.m., 24 people became stranded on the Stratosphere ride, a tower-like structure with suspended seats for riders to rotate around the top. Broadcast news reports indicated that power was lost to the ride.
Some reports said that the two dozen riders were stuck at least 150 feet in the air.
WFAA reported that State Fair staff would "manually lower them down."
As the spectacle unfolded, fair-goers dutifully updated social media sites with videos and photos shot with their cellphones. Some of the riders were seen on the news reports waving to the people below them.
NBCdfw.com reported that it had contacted a rider by cell phone, who said the lights went out on the ride and then it just stopped. The experience, she said, was "extremely scary."
"It is unknown how long it will take to crank the ride down," WFAA reported. The station also noted that the ride "had multiple malfunctioning problems at a Minnesota fair earlier this summer."
Dallas Fire-Rescue and police officers cordoned off the area around the ride, but as of 10:30 p.m., people were still in the air.
-- Bill Miller
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