Teen 'Thought We Were Going to Die' While Stuck Upside Down on Amusement Ride

One woman is opening up about her experience getting stuck upside down with 27 other people on a theme park roller coaster for over 20 minutes on Friday, June 14.

Jordan Harding, 18, tells PEOPLE that she was on the ride with her boyfriend, 17, and thought they “were going to die there.”

Harding, her boyfriend and 26 other visitors at Portland's Oaks Amusement Park were riding AtmosFEAR that day. At around 2:55 p.m., the ride stopped in its place, suspending them all upside down in its "apex position," the park said in a statement shared to X (formerly Twitter).

Harding explains to PEOPLE, “After about 15 seconds of being upside down, I realized we were stuck. I thought we were going to die there. My boyfriend was scared too.” 

She says that all the other passengers were younger than her because Portland Public Schools were “holding their eighth-grade celebration there.” She notes that all the children “stayed relatively calm.” 

However, she was scared at that moment. “I remember thinking that I was going to die like that and miss out on so many major things that I had hoped to experience," Harding says.

Harding alleges the ride operators “waited a few seconds before notifying park maintenance because they thought it would just swing back down.” The AtmosFEAR can operate on either a 180- or 360-degree setting as it sends its riders flipping through the air on a loop.

According to the amusement park, the ride operators called 911 and began initiating "emergency procedures."

She recalls that they announced the park was closing, and the fire department was on its way, and she reveals that's when she “really started to panic.” 

“I didn't realize until after that the fire department had a plan to get us down using ropes,” Harding says. “I learned after that maintenance was able to just push the ride hard enough and allow it to swing down.”

“I'm not sure that the park needs to be shut down, but I do think that ride should be removed,” she adds.

The first responders arrived on the scene around 3:20 p.m., and within minutes, all of the riders were taken off the ride and safely returned to the ground, per the park’s announcement.

She says she's unsure if “Oaks Park should be held at fault” but does believe “they should offer more compensation than just a refund and a free ticket back.”

“I would not go on the ride again or back to the park just because of the emotional distress of it all,” she tells PEOPLE before concluding, “I do feel lucky to be alive. When you're about to lose your life you gain a new outlook on life allowing you to enjoy every day a little more.”

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The park closed for the day. Oaks Park's website states that the attraction will be closed until further notice.

An Oaks Park representative tells PEOPLE that an investigation into the incident is in its beginning stages.

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