Regarding the post RTeetz quoted:
See that starts to make sense with the timeline. They wanted to clear the line to bring the gondolas back in to avoid a mass evacuation. I have to believe that if at all possible, it is safer to bring the gondolas back to the station than to evacuate them in the air. But they didn't want to work on clearing the line during an emergency evac situation, which also makes sense. It explains why only a few gondolas were evacuated and seemingly in order. And it starts to explain, though not excuse, what took so long to clear the line and return the gondolas to the stations.
There are several critical failures to address. One, why the accident happened. Two, the problem with identifying individual gondolas. Three, the problem with the emergency supplies. Four, the problem with emergency information. Five, the time to evacuate an individual gondola.
Of these problems, they will find the fault that caused the accident in the first place. I'm thinking they shouldn't have a problem doing that. Once it is identified there will be a solution because these lines exist all over the world. Whether it is user error or a mechanical fault, I actually think this will be one of the easier problems to address.
There is a super simple solution to the second problem. Paint some luminescent numbers on the bottom of the gondolas. That seems like a stupid oversight but that is kind of the definition of a failure a lot of times.
The third does not have an easy solution. People suck and they are going to steal stuff.
Problem four seems to be easily correctable, though completely anathema to Disney's modus operandi in any kind of situation. But if you solve four, you lessen the problem of jamming up 911. Disney's reticence to provide people with usable information is going to have to change. That's is going to be hard for Disney. But, if you tell people that they are safe, there is an evac for a medical emergency ONLY going on, and to please stay off 911 unless absolutely necessary and provide timely updates that the evac is continuing and that as soon as it is finished work will resume to return cars to the stations, MOST people will understand that an emergency evac comes first and that while it is inconvenient, there is a plan and they will stay calm. Providing no information leads to 911 calls that make things worse.
Problem Five is going to need some work. I don't care how hard it is to find a single gondola, they still only evacuated a few in a row over a significant amount of time. That pretty much shows they can't evacuate the line in a timely manner.
