I did the College Program in the Spring of 2012 and worked in Epcot on Soarin'. I was hanging out in the break trailer about to get on my shift one day when one of my coworkers came in and was visibly shaken. I came to find out that she had been working what we call "tower". The tower cast member is the person who operates the ride and is the only cast member in the theater when the ride is in operation. After the final safety check has been done, tower starts the ride. One of the main parts of the safety check is checking three monitors that show you every part of the theater to ensure that all guests are seated and strapped in and no one is randomly running around in the theater. You also have three other cast members who do a final sweep of the theater to ensure that all guests are seated and strapped in. After this has been done, tower pushes the button that sends the riders into the air and the show begins. During the show, towers only job is to watch the three monitors mentioned above that are now focused on the carriages in mid air to ensure that no guests try to get out of their seats (because the drop is roughly 25-30 feet).

Back to my coworker, like I said, she was working tower and during one of the rides she noticed a sound coming from the ground while the carriages were in mid air. She pulls out a flashlight and surveys the ground and notices that a little girl and her father were walking around in the theater during the show. She immediately did an emergency stop and called our manager on duty. Had she not noticed these people walking around, the carriages would have come down on them at roughly 40-45 mph. You can see how this would have been poor PR for the company. It turns out that after the three assisting cast members had exited the theater, the two guests had slipped out of their seat belts and wanted to get out without telling anyone. Unfortunately for them, the doors into and out of the theater are locked as soon as the third cast member gets out of the theater. So, rather than screaming and yelling "HEY WE'RE DOWN HERE", they though it would be better to call their relative.....IN VIRGINIA. I mean, fine, you have a relative waiting for you outside the ride and want to tell them to alert a cast member, I guess I can see where you're coming from, but one that's not even in the same state? really? SO, that's how the guests fucked up, but wait until you hear how Disney fucked up.

Soarin' shut down for the remainder of the day that day and for the entire day after in Orlando and also in California for a "safety review". All cast members were still required to show up for work the next day. We were all sitting around twiddling our thumbs the next day and one of our coordinators comes by and starts giving us some of the gossip coming from the managers. Apparently Disney has known that there is a blind spot in the security cameras tower uses to do one final survey of the theater before the ride goes up. They came to the conclusion that these two people manager to find the blind spot and hang out in it so tower couldn't see them before sending the ride up. They did fix the problems, but it took for an almost-death for Disney to right a known wrong with their safety cameras on the most popular ride in Epcot. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what will likely keep me from ever stepping foot in another Disney park ever again.

Also, for some reason, small children love to wet themselves on motion simulators.....