Tyre Sampson, 14, died when he fell from a ride at ICON Park in Orlando.
Tyre Sampson, 14, died when he fell from a ride at ICON Park in Orlando.
The teenager who died when he fell from an Orlando theme park ride told his friends he knew something was wrong and that he didn't believe he was going to make it down alive.
Tyre Sampson, 14, plunged more than 50m to his death when the harness designed to keep him strapped into the ICON Park Free Fall ride slipped over his head on March 24.
Investigators fronted the media on Monday after Sampson's father revealed that as the ride ascended 130m, the teen said: "This [harness] is moving".
Yarnell Sampson told local news station WOFL-TV that his son "was feeling uncomfortable" when the ride took off.
"He was like 'this thing is moving,' you know what I'm saying. And he was like 'what's going on? That's when he started freaking out."
The teen's father said he told his two friends, seated to his right, that he was terrified.
"And he was explaining to his friends, next to him, 'I don't know man, if I don't make it down safely, can you please tell my mamma and daddy that I love them'.
"For him to say something like that, he must have felt something [was very wrong]."
Tyre Sampson died when he fell from a ride at ICON Park in Orlando.
Harrowing and graphic footage of the incident has been shared around the world in the weeks since Sampson's death as authorities try to determine exactly what went wrong.
On Monday, they released new information about "adjustments" that had been made to the harness for heavier riders — something they said should never have been done.
Speaking to the media, Florida Commissioner for the Department of Consumer Services, Nikki Fried, said "Mr Sampson was never properly secured to his seat".
She said a forensic engineering team had discovered that "manual adjustments" had been made to the ride "resulting in it being unsafe".
"Manual adjustments had been made to the sensor for the seat in question that allowed the harness-to-restraint opening to be almost double that of the normal restraint-opening range," Fried said.
"These mis-adjustments allowed the safety lights to illuminate improperly, satisfying the ride's electronic safety mechanism that allowed the ride to operate."
A family lawyer said earlier this month that Sampson's death was "completely preventable".
"Other than George Floyd's tragic torture video, I think this is the worst tragedy captured on video that I have ever seen," Ben Crump told Orlando news channel WESH2.
He said the ride was designed to carry a passenger no more than 130kg but Sampson weighed more than 136kg.
A look at the restraints on the Orlando Free Fall ride. They pull over the rider - similar to a roller coaster (no seat belts). 2 workers do safety checks and make sure restraints are locked. A 14-year-old boy tragically died in the ride last night. @fox35orlandopic.twitter.com/UuvjadcCJq
Another family lawyer, Michael Haggard, said it was a requirement for signage to include maximum safe weight warnings but there were none posted near the window where Sampson purchased a ticket to ride.
"The last chance to stop this was, just have a weight requirement and to enforce it," Haggard said.
"They have a height limit on there, a height restriction, but I didn't see anywhere where they measure it … And they have a weight restriction that's not disclosed to anyone."
In a disturbing video of the tragic incident taken by a bystander and shared on social media, one of the ride's operators could be heard talking with a group strapped in for the ride.
"Y'all ever been on this before? You know how high you're going? 430 feet. You're coming down 75 miles per hour," the ride operator told the group.
"Why doesn't this have the little clip to it, like the seatbelt?" one woman asked him.
As the ride begins, an operator appeared to joke: "Have you checked your seat belt? On the left side. Seat belt?"
Lawyers for the family of Tyre Sampson say his death was entirely preventable.
Sampson's uncle, Carl Sampson, told NBC the teen who was visiting Orlando from Missouri "was a really good kid. Really respectable … He had a bright future ahead. He was very intelligent".
"It's hard to believe. He was just 14 years old. It was very tragic that it happened. He was too young," he said, adding that the boy's parents, who reportedly witnessed the accident, were not doing well.
The Orlando Free-Fall opened in December 2021 and claims to be America's tallest freestanding drop tower, standing at 131 metres tall and holding up to 30 people.
The ride spins around a gigantic tower after it reaches peak level in the air.
Riders are positioned forward with their faces at the ground — secured by over-the-shoulder restraint harnesses with two hand grips at chest level — before dropping at 120 kilometres per hour.
