Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Woman’s father describes night of panic

Glenn McKinnon, father of 19-year-old Erica McKinnon, who was trapped on the Stratosphere's Insanity ride for more than 90 minutes Wednesday after high winds shut it down, is planning to meet with attorneys Monday.

"They said it (Insanity) worked the way it's supposed to. That's unacceptable," he said.

"As I was driving to the Stratosphere, all I could think of is, 'Oh, my God, that's my baby up there,' " McKinnon said Thursday night.

"Erica has asthma, but she loves those types of rides," McKinnon said.

He said he was on the verge of panic as he sped to the Stratosphere, partly because he had been hung up on three times while trying to get information from Stratosphere personnel who would only tell him "we're working on it."

When McKinnon arrived at the Stratosphere, Las Vegas Boulevard South was shut down and paramedics were waiting to check the girls' conditions. Contrary to his earlier treatment over the phone, he said at the scene that a Stratosphere security supervisor was "awesome."

When the girls were rescued after dangling in the chilly, blustery air nearly 1,000 feet above the ground on the immobile ride, their father was waiting for them.

A hotel engineer, who had just come on duty, inched along a 50-foot beam to rescue the two girls, McKinnon said. The Stratosphere will not release the man's name.

"Even though we're upset, that guy definitely has to be recognized as a hero," he said.

Erica McKinnon said she once rode the Big Shot ride on the Stratosphere, but this was her first time on Insanity.

"I will not go back (to the Stratosphere)," she said.

"It was scary, it was freezing, there's no words to describe the way we felt up there," Erica McKinnon said.

Although the Las Vegas native who graduated from Valley High School in 2004 could not take her purse, her cell phone was in her pocket, she said, but she had no asthma medication with her.

"Yes, I was having trouble breathing and shaking," she said.

In addition to riding roller coasters, Erica said she works two jobs, as a Safe Key employee for North Las Vegas in the morning and in the Mirage's reception area at night.

"Erica loves roller coasters," said her mother, Martha McKinnon. "She's fearless."

But when the mother received a frantic phone call from Erica while she was stuck in midair, the 19-year-old sounded frantic, McKinnon said.

Both the mother and father had given permission for the excursion to the Stratosphere.

Her daughter and her friend from out of state had gone to dinner after Erica got off work, the mother said. A younger sister, Yvonne, was too scared to get on the ride.

"She told me that she couldn't feel her hands and feet anymore," the mother said. "She told me that she loved me and said she thought she might die."

Why couldn't the resort have a release switch, Martha McKinnon wanted to know.

For 11-year-old Gabriella Cecineros, this will be her last thrill ride.

"The ride was shaking, I was afraid," Cecineros, Erica's cousin, said. "In your head you're thinking the ride is falling."

Cecineros, a sixth grader at Garside Junior High School, said, "No, no more rides. This is my first and last (ride) though."

In a 911 tape of the call Erica made, she sounded scared, breathless as winds whipped the cell phone from which she called. She made the call at 1:40 a.m., according to Metro Police records, just moments before she was rescued.

"Hello? Hello? Help me..." Erica said.

"Are you stranded somewhere?" the dispatcher asked.

"We're on top of the Stratosphere ... on the Insanity ... it's stuck out here," Erica said.

The dispatcher said she'd call hotel security.

"No, security's here. They're trying but there's nothing they can do," Erica said.

The call ends as the dispatcher asks, "Hello? Hello? Erica, are you there? Can you hear me?"

The phone call ended in static, then silence.

Las Vegas Fire & Rescue spokesman Tim Szymanski said Metro called them, and a batallion chief sent a crew to the scene immediately. But when firefighters got there, they were told the girls were already off the ride, he said.

The Stratosphere kept the Insanity ride closed Thursday while it gathered three letters confirming the ride's safety and was likely to reopen ride today, according to the Stratosphere.

The city asked the Stratosphere to shut down the Insanity ride after a 61 mph gust of wind triggered an automatic "pause" of the Insanity ride at 12:45 a.m. Wednesday morning.

City officials asked the Stratosphere to provide three letters attesting to the safety of the ride -- one from the original engineer of Insanity, one from the hotel and one from an independent ride inspector -- before it reopened the ride.

As of 5 p.m. Thursday, the hotel had provided the city with one letter from the hotel and city officials were waiting for letters from the original engineer and the independent inspection firm, Recreation Engineers, said city spokesman David Riggleman.

"(The stratosphere) agreed to keep it closed until they sent all three letters," Riggleman said, adding that the city did not formally order the Stratosphere to close down the ride.

The city sent an official from the building department to the Stratosphere to meet with hotel officials and discuss safety measures, but not to inspect the actual ride, he said.

"We're going to leave it to the judgment of the experts," Riggleman said.

The stratosphere expected that the onsite inspector from Recreation Engineers would complete the safety check for the ride on Thursday night and by this morning all relevant letters and documents would be with the city, said Randall Fine, senior vice president for marketing for American Casino and Entertainment Properties, the parent company of the Stratosphere.

Fine reiterated the fact that the ride never malfunctioned. Sun reporter

David Kihara contributed to this report.

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