It’s been picked up by national press! Not great!
I don’t know how this incident occurred, but the way the ride is operated requires the tower op to keep their foot on a plunger-style pedal during the entire ride sequence. That’s not unheard of; many swinging ships have the same mechanism to make sure operators don’t wander away from the panel.
But if you take your food off a swinging ship pedal, the ride coasts back to a neutral position. Sol Spin, for god only knows what reason, freezes in mid-air. To make matters worse, the pedal does not feel very precise, which makes it challenging to know if your foot is in the right place.
Anyway, I’d bin this thing tomorrow.