Arkansas mother Ally Metzger panicked as her children dangled upside down on the ride to the state fair

A “panicked” Arkansas mother could only watch as her two children dangled upside down on a broken carnival ride for 15 minutes.

Ally Metzger and her family were at the Arkansas State Fair in Little Rock on Saturday when her children, ages 8 and 11, rode the X-Drive, a 16-seat attraction where riders are at the other end of the rotating arm and have rotating seats that allow the drivers to turn freely.

The ride had stopped spinning, but Metzger's children, standing in the air several feet above the ground surveying the view, were left upside down.

“They're trying to get my kids down, they've been stuck upside down for at least 15 minutes,” Metzger said in a video posted on Facebook, as workers tried to manually turn the ride to help the stranded passengers.

Metzger didn't start recording until 10 minutes after the ride ended when someone told her.

“There are a lot of people trying to get the ride to spin and they would almost make it halfway. Then it went back up to the top and my kids were still upside down. So, I'm panicking. My partner is panicking,” Metzger told KATV.

The companions finally managed to turn the ride around and free Metzger's children.

Metzger's 11-year-old daughter says she doesn't remember much of what happened

“When she got home she told me all she remembered was crying and then she just felt dizzy. Her legs hurt. I guess because the circulation was over,” Metzger said.

Two other drivers and Metzger's children were also left upside down during the disturbance – it was unknown if they were injured.

During the loading and unloading phase, small motors are intended to bring the driver into a comfortable sitting position on the unloaded part of the ride.

According to Scooter Korek, vice president of North American Midway Entertainment Services, last week's incident is blamed on a technical error.

“The ride computer received an error. If it finds something it doesn't like, it turns it off. So the aircraft was in the air and not in the landing position for about 10 to 12 minutes,” Korek told the outlet.

Despite the 15 minutes of suspense, Korek still trusts the ride's safety and even says anyone in his family can ride at any time.

“Let me summarize it briefly and succinctly. Any of my family members can take part in any of our trips every day. That’s how good I feel about our programs, our safety programs and the people who work for us to operate and maintain these rides,” he said.

However, the angry mother and her children don't feel the same way.

“We had a really honest conversation about it and they said, 'You know, I was really scared, I didn't know what was happening, I just want to take a break, if that's okay.'”

After the incident, Metzger railed against the trade fair, demanded her money back and called one of the employees.

“After what was spent to get to this place? GIVE ME MY REFUND,” Metzger wrote on Facebook. “Oh, and I filed a nice complaint.”

The complaint was against a ride attendant who allegedly told parents to “calm down, it's only been four and a half minutes and you're just making it worse.”

“Kudos to the nice lady in the medical tent who made sure my babies were okay and gave us our money back. I remember why I don’t come here,” she added.

The family's plans for their fun weekend were thwarted by the trip.

“We had plans this weekend, but this just messed everything up,” Metzger added.