Orlando theme park ride operator tells group 'there ain't no seatbelts' seconds before boy, 14, fell to his death as it dropped 430ft to ground: Staff at Orlando's ICON park thought a 'piece of the ride'
Staff at the Orlando Icon theme park where a 14-year-old boy died last night falling from a descending ride were videoed telling the group he was a part of that 'there ain't no seatbelts', seconds before he fell to his death.
The boy has not yet been identified and he is not shown in the video. He was believed to have been sitting on the other side of the ride from where the people in the video were filmed. In the video that circulated on social media, he was among riders on the Orlando Free Fall, a new attraction at the theme park, on Thursday when he fell out of his seat as it hurtled 75mph to the ground.
Before the ride rose into the air, ride operators were filmed telling the group that there were no seatbelts.
The riders instead were held in their seats by pull-down plastic harnesses.
One woman was worried about the fact there was nothing more to keep them in the seats as the ride descended and asked if there was a seatbelt to clip them in.
'There ain't no seatbelts,' the ride attendant replied.
The ride then went up in the air and halted for around 10 seconds before dropping. The boy fell out of his seat and landed on the ground soon afterwards to the horror of the other riders.
After they were back on the ground, video shows a different park worker run over to the ride attendant and ask: 'You didn't check it!?'
He insisted that he had and she asked again: 'Are you sure?'
Park employees say they initially thought his body was a piece of the ride that had broken off until they saw the boy lying on the ground. 
A teenager has died after falling from a drop ride at ICON theme park on International Drive in Orlando, Florida just after 11pm on Thursday
The teen, who has not yet been identified, was taken to hospital but succumbed to his injuries, Orange County Sheriff’s Office confirmed
Close up view of the Orlando Free Fall at ICON Park on Friday, March 25, 2022 in Orlando
The ride is pictured on Friday, the day after the accident
It's unclear what the minimum height restriction for the ride is or how he could have fallen out of his harness.
It is the second accident at the park in two years. In 2020, a park employee died while working on the StarFlyer ride.
The teen, who has not yet been identified, was taken to hospital but succumbed to his injuries, Orange County Sheriff’s Office confirmed.
'At first we thought it was a piece of the ride or whatever until we got a little closer and it was a person laying on the ground.
'Everyone was just panicking and screaming,' park employee Montrey Williams told FOX 35 Orlando.
The ride, the Orlando Free Fall, opened in December 2021, stands at 430ft tall and can accommodate up to 30 people.
It plunges to the ground at 75 miles per hour and rotates around a central tower as it rises.
After it reaches the top, riders tilt forward and face the ground briefly before free-falling at approximately 75 miles per hour.
It was not immediately clear how the teenager became free from the ride's seat belt or how many people were on the tower at the time.
ICON Park on International Drive has not yet commented on the tragedy.
Police have opened an investigation into the incident.
'And this is why we're doing this investigation. We are working with those people investigating at this point.'
A 21-year-old worker was performing a safety inspection on the StarFlyer ride in Orlando on September 14 when he fell 200 feet to his death
It comes less than two years after a park employee died after falling 200 feet from the Orlando StarFlyer attraction.
In September 2020, Icon park employee Jacob Kaminsky died while trying to fix another ride at the park
The 21-year-old employee was performing a safety check about halfway up the 450-foot-tall ride when he plummeted to his death just before 8am on September 14 2020.
The worker struck a platform below the ride at ICON Park on International Drive in Orlando and went into cardiac arrest, according to first responders who were called to the scene.
The man was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead from his injuries.
The swing ride opened to the public in 2018.
According to the description on the attraction's official site, StarFlyer has no age limit and no weight limit, and the minimum height required to go on the ride is just 44 inches.
The ride is made up of 24 double seats that travel up and down and around the giant tower for 3-4 minutes.
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