Disney World's new gondolas come to halt, strand passengers for hours

ORLANDO, Fla. – Walt Disney World park-goers were stranded for hours Saturday night aboard the theme park's newly launched aerial cable car system.

Disney Skyliner cable cars became stuck in the air around 8 p.m. Firefighters were called to the Orlando-area theme park, and several guests posted to social media, saying rescues were underway.

One photo showed a ladder reaching from a fire truck with a platform extended at the top.

Disney said one line of the new system was affected by an "extended outage," but it's not known exactly how many people were stranded.

Guests posted to social media that some of the capsules crashed into each other, but Disney insisted that the cars did not collide.

Disney said there were no reports of injuries.

It's not known what caused the incident.

Disney later released a statement about the mishap.

"One of the three Disney Skyliner routes experienced an unexpected downtime Saturday evening. As a result, the Skyliner will be closed while we look into the details surrounding this downtime. We apologize for this situation, and we are working with each guest individually regarding impacts to their visit with us," Disney said.

Stranded guests said they were told to open emergency kits aboard the capsules, which include water, light sticks and other items.

Michael Loughran was with his wife, son and four others in a car near the Riviera resort.

"It's been cool in here. (The cars) have vents and we've had some wind come through. The seats are hard, so that's been uncomfortable," Loughran said.

Video from Sky 6 showed the Skyliner cars moving again around 11 p.m.

The Skyliner air gondolas opened to visitors last week. The cable cars whisk visitors from hotels to theme parks three stories above the ground while going 11 mph. No more than 10 people are allowed in each cable car.

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