The wheel of the Pripyat survey makes the first turns

In September 2017, an incident occurred,aroused the Internet community of the entire post-Soviet space and not only. On YouTube, a movie appeared, the central object of which was the Ferris wheel of Pripyat. About what shocked the audience, and why the video instantly disappeared from the channel, wrote many newspapers and online publications. That's what really happened.

Chernobyl zone

The city of Pripyat is in the so-calledThe Chernobyl exclusion zone, which covers a 30-km radius around the infamous nuclear reactor. Earlier, right after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, it was called a 30-kilometer zone. There for a long time access was forbidden, and a free visit unaccompanied by experienced guides is impossible even today, although many extremals find the opportunity to explore radioactive spaces in the nuclear power plant on their own. The zone has been heavily contaminated with radionuclides, and there are still many places that present a real danger to human health.

Pripyat is a ghost town

The most dangerous objects include the wheelreview of Pripyat. It was built in the central city park, near the recreation center "Energetik" and the newly functioning "Polesie" hotel for several months. Pripyat itself is a small town that was built for station workers. Practically in every family living in Pripyat, one or more people were engaged in servicing the reactor.

There is a town just two kilometers fromburning reactor, so it got a huge amount of radioactive dust. And if the streets and houses outside are gradually cleaned, then many rooms inside buildings continue to be a source of infection for people.

The tragic fate of the attraction

The Pripyat Observation Wheel has a tragichistory from the very beginning of its foundation. It was built in the same year, when the accident occurred, and the grand opening was timed to coincide with the May holidays. On May 1, the children of the plant workers were supposed to ride the Ferris wheel for the first time and get their first impressions of what they saw. But it did not happen. The wheel is forever frozen, from a distance well visible thanks to the bright yellow cabins. Nobody ever washed them from the inside. A layer of radioactive dust froze there for many years, and the attraction became one of the most symbolic monuments of a terrible tragedy.

The notorious Ferris wheel of Pripyat sonever went round until September 2017. Yes, and who would have risked turning it on after so many years without moving. All the mechanisms that radiate little radiation have long been covered with a thick layer of rust, and the supporting structures are quite capable of crashing at any time. However, there were people who, without waiting and not asking for anybody's consent, launched the observation wheel in Pripyat in manual mode without the use of an electric drive and filmed the process on video.

The appearance of a video on the web

A clip with scandalous shots appeared on the web 11September. His author was a citizen of Poland, Christopher Grzhibek. In the description under the video, the Polish tourist wrote that he did not use electricity during the launch. The Pole was helped by his friends and compatriots, who specially came to Ukraine to visit the exclusion zone. Grzybek also noted that he and his friends had fired the observation wheel in Pripyat in a mechanical mode with the utmost care. According to him, all the mechanisms remained intact and intact, and after the experiment was over and the video was removed, the tourists returned to their previous state. Almost immediately the Pole removed his video from the channel, but there were users who had time to download it and distribute it in social networks.

The scandal surrounding the video

When the Ferris wheel came to life in the dead Pripyat,tourist extremals from Poland, who came to the May holidays for new impressions in Chernobyl, were seized on the spot. A scandal broke out. 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 stillness could just collapse. Such a danger exists up to now. This can lead to the fact that tourists will not be allowed into the exclusion zone, and all tours will be canceled.

Currently, the exclusion zone enjoysdemand as a tourist object. Here one-day excursions are organized for a long time, and upon completion of work in the local hotel "Polesie" they began to spend two- and three-day trips to these places. After the Poles untwisted 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 GAZO), called the Pole video fake. Specialists of this structure came to the scene of the incident the next day to find out all the circumstances of the incident. According to the results of the study, an official statement was made, which categorically rejects the possibility of a mechanical launch of the attraction. Considering that the wheel weighs several tens of tons, it is almost unreal to scroll it without using an electric drive.