CityNews – Press release from Flight of the Gibbon following reports of an accident that caused the centre to be closed by police indefinitely on December 20.
CHIANG MAI, Thailand: As widely reported in the domestic and international media, an accident occurred last week on the Flight of the Gibbon course in Chiang Mai. In brief, a customer (with a child) had just completed a Zipline crossing and landed on the platform. In turn, the next customer began crossing. The first customer fell backwards from the platform, resulting in a collision with the second customer. The customers remained attached to a cable at all times, which prevented falling to the ground.
Flight of the Gibbon’s staff acted quickly to get all three customers to safety and accompanied them to hospital. The child was promptly discharged. The two adult customers are in the hospital for the time being, but are expected to fully recover.
After millions of safe zip line crossings, Flight of the Gibbon has earned a reputation for being among the most responsible and safest operators, and so when an event like this happens, the entire team takes it very seriously. In addition to regular daily inspections, this course had already undergone a complete engineering inspection for 2016, which was successfully passed. The Zipline operator maintains a copy of this license in its office and is in full compliance with all business and safety laws and regulations.
“We are extremely distressed by what happened on Friday and have a manager on hand at the hospital with the guest. We expect them to have a full recovery from this accident. Of course, we will do our utmost to take care of them and cover all their personal and medical expenses. Our customers are of paramount importance to Flight of the Gibbon,” explains Kriangkrai Srihaampai, Operations Manager at Flight of the Gibbon.
The management team’s preliminary review of this accident indicates that there were no equipment failures of any type, but that this accident was caused purely by human error. Nevertheless, out of an abundance of caution, operation of this course has been temporarily suspended, pending another complete engineering inspection. Flight of the Gibbon apologizes to customers who are inconvenienced by the suspension of operations at this location. Customer safety is the company’s number one priority. Operations will resume again as soon as possible.
Flight of the Gibbon holds itself to the highest safety standards, and their goal is zero accidents. It is the only Zipline course operator in Thailand with an inspection certificate certifying compliance with the International Standards of the ACCT.
For further information and images please contact:
Narassa Sipyok
Midas Communications International Co., Ltd.
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: +66 95 394 2414
Website: www.midas-pr.com