Yeah. I never saw pics of the actual incident.
EDIT: Okay, now I have. Yeah, I think he was horsing around and it went sideways. I don't see how you fall out of such a thing "accidentally". I've been on a ton of these things in my life and I'd have to put in some effort to get out of that chair, mid-ride. I saw two video clips. There was no panic or yelling, or struggle to get back up, etc. Nobody goes to an amusement park to off themselves, do they? So maybe he was horsing around and figured he could've held on until it got lower? He seemed pretty calm for someone in that situation, so maybe he was just saving his strength, focusing on his grip and waiting for the ride to start dropping back down to the area where people get on and off (at which point he would've been tossed from the park and probably hit with a lifetime ban).
Either way, it was going to be his last time on this ride.
Here's something else to consider: that he was alone is odd (again, does anyone go to an amusement park by themselves? I've never seen it). If
he wasn't doing the filming/selfie/social media thing, makes me wonder if his friends were on the ground, filming up at
him from below for their viral 15 minutes of TikTok "fame"?
And when he fell, did a small group of people around his age and dressed similarly suddenly, and quietly, exit the park. "Oh shiiiiit...time to go!" Hate to think your friends would bail in that scenario, but they probably thought of all the trouble they might be in for?
What sucks in those pics are the kids who were in the other chairs (and down below), who had to witness this fool's plummet to earth. 50 feet is guaranteed to make an awful sound (a splat/thud or the sound of bones snapping), and possibly even a bit of bloodshed, depending on how/where he landed.
I can't believe we don't have a dedicated Darwin Award thread with all this kind of stuff corralled together.