Safety deficiencies

Cult ride: ex-employee comes clean

Robert Pichler (right) worked in the "Extasy" for more than 20 years.(Bild: zVg, Krone KREATIV)

Not everything is running smoothly at the "Extasy" upside-down carousel in Vienna's Prater. There is talk of safety deficiencies, but the operator denies it.

The "Extasy" in the Prater is both famous and infamous. It is considered to be the fastest head-over-heels carousel in the world, with centrifugal forces of up to 4G. It is notorious because there have already been several incidents: in 2020, part of the cladding of a gondola came loose, in 2018 an eleven-year-old fell off the ride and in 2010 a man died when he jumped over the barrier and was hit by a gondola. That's the official version.