Reported by Kelli Cook
ORLANDO -- Walt Disney World officials have not offered any explanation on how two monorail trains collided Sunday, killing one of the pilots.
Disney officials said they are waiting until the investigation is complete, but a number of former monorail pilots have been talking about the monorail system itself and their thoughts on what might have went wrong.
News 13 spoke with the former pilots on the Internet, phone and in person. They all seemed to ask the same thing: “How did something like this happen?”
According to former pilots, the monorail system is broken up into a section of blocks, and the trains are a certain number of blocks apart.
If the trains get too close, the pilot is alerted to put on the brakes. If the pilot does not stop, the control center will engage the brakes.
In the nearly 38 years the monorail system has been in operation, there has never been a fatal collision until Sunday.
However, as the news spread among current and former monorail pilots, some have come up with their conclusion on how the unthinkable happened and have been publishing it through blogs.
News 13 spoke to a former monorail pilot named Jon, who would not let us use his last name. He was in the college program and was a pilot until 1998.
Jon said he thinks monorail pink was driving in reverse and backed into monorail purple. He also thinks Wuennenberg was in the stationary train.
Jon’s theory is not an official Disney statement. It remains unclear when an official explanation will come, or when the monorails will be back in operation.
Comment On This Story