In September 2017, an incident occurredshook the Internet community of the entire post-Soviet space and not only. A video appeared on the YouTube channel, the main object of which was the Pripyat Ferris Wheel. About what shocked the audience, and why the video instantly disappeared from the channel, wrote many newspapers and online publications. This is what really happened.
Chernobyl zone
The city of Pripyat is located in the so-calledThe Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, which covers a region with a radius of 30 km around the infamous nuclear reactor. Earlier, immediately after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, it was called the 30-kilometer zone. Access was banned there for a long time, and free visits without accompanying experienced guides are impossible even today, although many extreme lovers find the opportunity to explore radioactive spaces in the field of nuclear power plants on their own. The zone has been heavily contaminated with radionuclides, and there are still many places that pose a real danger to human health.
Pripyat - ghost town
The wheel is one of the most dangerous objects.views of Pripyat. It was built in the central city park, not far from the Energetik recreation center and the Polesye hotel, which has been functioning for several months already. Pripyat itself is a small town that was built for station workers. In almost every family living in Pripyat, one or more people were engaged in reactor maintenance.
The town is located just two kilometers fromignited reactor, so it got a huge amount of radioactive dust. And if the streets and houses outside were gradually cleared, then many rooms inside buildings continue to be a source of infection for people.
The tragic fate of the attraction
Ferris wheel Pripyat has a tragichistory from its inception. It was built in the same year when the accident occurred, and the grand opening was timed to the May holidays - on May 1, the kids of the station workers had to ride on the Ferris wheel for the first time and get the first impressions of what they saw. But it did not happen. The wheel forever froze, clearly visible from afar thanks to bright yellow cabs. Nobody ever washed them from the inside. The layer of radioactive dust has stopped there for many years, and the attraction has become one of the most emblematic monuments of the terrible tragedy.
The infamous Pripyat Ferris Wheelnever spun until September 2017. And who would risk turning it on after so many years without moving. All the mechanisms, which emit little radiation, have long been covered with a thick layer of rust, and the supporting structures are quite capable of collapsing at any moment. However, there were people who, without waiting for and without asking for any consent, launched the Ferris wheel in Pripyat in manual mode without using an electric drive and filmed this process on video.
The appearance of the video on the web
Video with scandalous shots appeared on the Web 11September Its author was a citizen of Poland, Christopher Grzybek. In the description under the video, a Polish tourist wrote that he did not use electricity during the launch. A Pole was helped by his friends and compatriots who had come to Ukraine on purpose to visit the exclusion zone. Grzybek also noted that he and his friends had launched the Ferris wheel at Pripyat in mechanical mode, while observing maximum caution. According to him, all the mechanisms remained intact and after the end of the experiment and the removal of the video, the tourists returned everything to its former state. Almost immediately, the Pole deleted his video from the channel, but there were users who managed to download it and distribute it in social networks.
Scandal around video
When the Ferris wheel came alive in the dead Pripyat,Extreme tourists from Poland, who came to the May holidays for new impressions in Chernobyl, caught on the spot. A scandal erupted. Activists in Ukraine have prepared a complaint to the relevant structures. According to them, such actions of Polish tourists carried a real threat. The wheel after so many years of immobility could simply collapse. Such a danger still exists. This may lead to the fact that tourists are no longer allowed into the exclusion zone, and all tours are canceled.
At the moment, the exclusion zone enjoysin demand as a tourist site. One-day excursions have been organized here for a long time, and at the end of the work at the local hotel “Polesie” they began to conduct two-, three-day trips to these places. After the Poles have unwrapped the Ferris wheel in Pripyat, all excursions can be canceled.
The reaction of the authorities
In the State Agency of Ukraine, which manages the zonealienation (abbreviated GAS), called the video fake Pole. The specialists of this structure were on the scene just a day later to find out all the circumstances of the incident. According to the results of the study, an official statement was made in which the possibility of a mechanical launch of an attraction was categorically rejected. Considering that the wheel weighs several tens of tons, it is practically impossible to roll it without using an electric drive, according to experts.
