Rescue Operations Video Theme Park
One of the sky cabin of the 12th most visited theme park Knotts Berry Farm broke down 14:00 (22:00 GMT) on Friday 30th January 2016.
After struggling to fix it, officials contacted the fire department, and crews arrived around 17:00 and also tried in vain to restart the ride.
At 19:30, they began extracting passengers using a safety harness as onlookers below clapped and cheered.
Orange County Fire Authority Capt Larry Kurtz told Eyewitness News: "It sounds scary, but these guys, they train for this all the time.
"We have very, very strong ropes that have 9,000 pounds [four tonnes] of breaking strength on them."
The theme park said afterwards the Sky Cabin would stay closed until the causes of the breakdown had been established.