There was high media coverage of the Hyperia rollercoaster stopping and leaving riders near its summit on Saturday.
The 236-foot (72-metre) ride came to a stop after just over two hours of operation on Saturday.
20 people on board remained in place before the train was released to complete the circuit after about an hour.
In a statement on Saturday, Thorpe Park was quoted by the BBC as saying Hyperia experienced a “short delay” in operation.
“Guests were held on the lift hill for approximately one hour before the ride was restarted and the train was brought back into the ride station,” the park said.
The Merlin Entertainments-operated theme park added that there were no safety concerns.
Tabloid sensationalism
Even routine stoppages of rides tend to attract considerable coverage in the UK.
But Hyperia’s recent issues have exacerbated this relatively minor incident.
BBC coverage was typically measured, tabloid coverage was also typical in its sensationalism.
The Daily Mirror described the stoppage as “chaos”, while the Daily Record said that Thorpe Park was a scene of “drama”.
MyLondon described it as a “disaster”, and that riders were left “stuck” on the rollercoaster.
Hyperia returned to operation on Wednesday this week, after 18 days of closure due to a reported failure in its lift hill mechanism.
Prior to that, the rollercoaster had only operated publicly for a single day, 24 May.
This Saturday’s lunchtime stoppage saw the ride closed for the rest of Thorpe Park’s operating day, which saw queues close at 18:00.
It is unclear if Hyperia will re-open on Sunday, but an issue at the end of Friday’s operating day did not result in obvious delays in Saturday’s initial opening.
Ride reliability
The reliability of the Mack Rides-built rollercoaster has been widely questioned on social media platforms, with most issues seemingly related to the ride’s lift hill, and trains’ release from it.
Lift hills are designed to hold trains when issued are detected with another train failing to have cleared certain areas.
Hyperia’s final brake run has been described as causing an excessive amount of time for trains to return to the station.
It is unclear how quickly any issues can be fully resolved, but the ride was achieving close to its theoretical throughput on Friday.
The ride has also been filmed traversing its outer-banked, and stalled dive loop elements at very low speeds.