Twenty-six revelers at Beijing's Happy Valley Amusement Park were trapped upside down for nearly 20 minutes after the park's centerpiece roller coaster malfunctioned yesterday afternoon, according to Chinese news reports and a statement from the park.

The fun-loving Beijingers were riding the park's most popular roller coaster, the Crystal Wing, at 3:26pm yesterday when it stopped at peak height. The riders were suspended in midair, facing down, for about 20 minutes before being helped off the ride.

Workers used a maintenance channel to rescue the trapped riders, who disembarked row by row while near the peak height of the ride, over 30 meters off the ground.

No serious injuries were reported, but several reported vomiting, dizziness and shock after being brought to safety.

Brilliant staff from the theme park offered those that were trapped free passes to take the coaster or another ride at the park again, though none took them up on the offer.

Park officials offered refunds and also arranged to take those that requested it to the hospital for examination

The roller coaster was designed by Bolliger & Mabillard from Switzerland, opened in 2006, and was the first suspended roller coaster in Asia. On Happy Valley's website, it is described as “facing down, you can experience the feeling of flying like a bird.”

According to the Beijing News, Happy Valley's marketing manager said the ride has been working without incident for 10 years, and said the incident was caused by a bird that landed on one of the ride's safety sensors.

Later at 9pm Happy Valley released an announcement confirming the details and said the roller coaster went back into operation without incident later that afternoon. The park also stated that security checks are made on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis.

It wasn’t the first time that Happy Valley has dealt with safety issues, the Beijing News reported. On July 13, 2013, The Odyssey, a water plume ride, shut down suddenly and 20 passengers were suspended in the boat capsule 10 meters from the ground for 10 minutes. Other minor incidents have occurred in 2009 and 2011.

Few other safety issues have been reported in the park's history.

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Photos courtesy of bjnews.com.cn, China Daily, bj.happyvalley.cn, weibo.com