Where this was said
The Columbia Ship Disaster: Christmas Eve 1998 at Disneyland
At 30:00 · chapter starts 27:00
The Columbia disaster is arguably Disneyland's most egregious case of operational negligence. Park employee Christine Carpenter threw a mooring line around the Columbia's iron cleat while the tall ship was still moving, putting catastrophic tension on the hardware. The cleat's bolts sheared and the 8-pound, 12-inch iron fitting launched into the crowd at tremendous force — striking Carpenter in the foot first, then hitting Liu Tui Vuong in the face and her husband Luan Phi Dawson in the head. Luan was declared brain dead by the time he reached UC Irvine Medical Center and died that same evening, on Christmas Day. Liu underwent extensive surgery that left permanent nerve damage and paralysis on the right side of her face. A deputy coroner determined the accident was caused by Disney's failure to follow docking procedure. More troubling still: when a detective arrived, he was kept waiting in a conference room and found the accident scene had been entirely cleaned up, with the broken cleat and two teeth located later in a dumpster.
On Christmas Eve 1998, a Disneyland employee moored the Columbia sailing ship before it stopped moving, causing an 8-pound iron cleat to shear off and fly into a crowd at lethal velocity. Luan Phi Dawson died on Christmas Day, brain dead from the impact, while his wife Liu suffered permanent facial paralysis.
On Christmas Eve 1998, an 8-pound iron cleat from Disneyland's Columbia ship sheared off and struck visitors, killing Luan Phi Dawson and permanently injuring his wife.
