So what’s new? Standing proudly at 165m or 42 storeys high, the largest observation wheel in the world – The Singapore Flyer, left 173 passengers stranded from 5.00 pm to 11.11pm due to a major power disruption. As I read the official reports online (I don’t read newsPAPers), I discovered 3 interesting and puzzling pieces of information.
1. Since the Flyer became operational in February this year, this is the third time it has encountered problems.
2. The last time a technical glitch occurred was just three weeks ago, on December 4. The wheel was stuck for nearly five hours due to extreme weather conditions and some 70 people were affected. In July, the Flyer stopped due to a minor fault in the braking system.
3. At least five passengers were lifted through the hatch on top of each capsule and winched to the ground by a private rescue firm engaged by Singapore Flyer.
Firstly, I didn’t hear about the Flyer breaking down before this. Maybe it’s because I didn’t read the newsPAPers or maybe the newsPAPers didn’t report. But certainly, if “extreme weather conditions” like a snowstorm or a hurricane had hit Singapore, there was no way I could have gone to work on that day. How come I didn’t know anything about “extreme weather conditions” either? And out of 173, “at least” 5 were rescued. Does that make sense? No. Even a primary school kid will say “Out of 173, only 5 were rescued in 6 hours.”
As Popeye would say, it’s “embarrassking”. Pity the folks who were trapped for nearly 6 hours without food, water and bathroom. I wonder if they have a “no urinating” signs in the capsules. I don’t blame the suffering passengers from feeling pissed off (pun intended) 
I wonder if they would be fined if they had urinated on the floor. The evidence is all in the “embarrassking” surveillance footage. Well, apart from a few burst bladders, No one was physically hurt in the incident. Some may have missed their connecting flights. Some may have missed the opportunity to solemnise their marriage and then spend their honeymoon in the capsule … the important thing is, nobody was hurt and everyone was reimbursed. Was the management obliged to do it? What if the passengers demanded for higher compensation? Would they fine the “pissers” raise funds for that?
But I’m sure there is some fine print behind every Flyer ticket that protects the company from passengers who try to claim opportunity costs and other intangible losses resulting from such troublesome disruptions. Like the fine print in minibond purchases, the fine print behind that Flyer ticket is probably read by few and understood by none. My fellow writer in the Chinese department, Dadi claims that he has no problem understanding fine print in any language. Dadi assures us that any sort of fine print can be translated into layman’s Cantonese – lei sei lei ge si.
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