LISTEN: 9-1-1 Call From Epcot Ride (MP3 file)
DISNEY CEO: Michael Eisner Answers Questions

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- A four-year-old boy died Monday after riding an intense ride at Walt Disney World. The 9-1-1 tape has now been released and Disney is answering some Channel 9 questions about the "Mission: Space" ride at Epcot.

The investigation into the little boy's health hasn't led to any real answers, but the 9-1-1 tape is telling more about what led up to the little boy's death.

The medical examiner says there were no obvious cause of death and no signs of trauma from the ride. She's still waiting on test results to pinpoint what happened, and that may take weeks.

Four-year-old Daudi Bamuwamye climbed aboard the Mission: Space ride with his mother and sister. They were visiting from Pennsylvania. During the ride, the boy's mother, Agnes, said she noticed her son's legs were stiff and sticking straight out. She thought he was simply afraid and grabbed his hand to comfort him.

GET WFTV NEWS HEADLINES BY EMAIL 9 a.m. Headlines Noon Headlines 4 p.m. Headlines News of the Strange Breaking News Alerts

When the ride stopped, the boy's mother noticed he was unconscious and carried him to the nearest Disney employee. They laid him down and the employee called 9-1-1. A minute and twenty seconds into the call the operator learned the boy wasn't breathing.

Video

Inside 'Mission: Space'

911 operator: "Is anybody doing cpr?"

Caller: "Is he CPR trained? No one's doing CPR."

911 operator: "I need someone to go over to the child and I can give you directors to do CPR."

At that moment, two minutes and 17 seconds into the call, a Disney employee, who is CPR trained, arrived and started CPR until paramedics arrived. They took him to Celebration Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The ride was closed after the death but reopened Tuesday after Disney World engineers determined that the ride was operating normally. No changes were made to the ride or in who is permitted to ride it.

"We believe the ride is safe in its current configuration," Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Polak said.

Experts tell Channel 9 it's entirely possible the boy had a pre-existing medical condition that his family might not have known about and the ride could have aggravated that.

For the first time since the death, Disney CEO Michael Eisner is talking about the tragedy. Wednesday morning, Eisner told Channel 9 that Disney feels for the victim's family but says their ride is safe.

"This is a very creative ride simulation of weightlessness, tested and worked on for years, and I think we just have to wait and see what the issues were," Eisner said. "Our sympathy goes out to the family. It's not a good thing and lets just see what we learned from it."

The sheriff's office said the boy did meet the ride's minimum 44-inch height limit.

Since the ride opened in 2003, seven people have been taken to the hospital for chest pains, fainting or nausea after riding Mission: Space, a $100 million attraction that is one of Disney World's most popular. That is the most hospital visits for a single ride since Florida's major theme parks agreed in 2001 to report any serious injuries to the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The most recent case was last summer when a 40-year-old woman was taken to a hospital after fainting.

More than 8.6 million visitors have gone on Mission: Space since 2003, Polak said.

One other death was reported at Disney World this year. Gloria Land, 77, of St. Paul, Minn., who was in poor health from diabetes and several ministrokes, lost consciousness in February after going on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at the Magic Kingdom. She was pronounced dead at a hospital.

"The death was not unexpected," the medical examiner's report said.

Although the state reports showed no major injuries or illnesses from Mission: Space before Monday, the hospital visits came up last year in discussions with state officials who consult annually with park officials about safety.

The centrifuge ride recreates the experience of a rocket blasting off. A clock counts down and the engines roar to life with a blast of noise and smoke and flame. Lift off G-forces -- just over twice the normal force of gravity -- cause short-lived facial distortions.

"Two Gs is not that big a deal," said Houston-based theme park consultant Randy King, a former safety director at Six Flags, which operates 30 amusement parks.

Warning signs advise pregnant women not to go on the ride, caution about motion sickness and ban children shorter than 44 inches. An audio recording and a video also warn riders of the risks.

In 2003, Disney began placing motion sickness bags in the ride.

The state's major parks are not directly regulated by the Department of Agriculture; Florida law exempts large, permanent amusement parks that have their own safety inspectors from state oversight. But the parks agreed to share safety information in 2001.

Other states, such as California, home to Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure, are regulated by the state.

King said the state or an independent inspector -- not the park -- should decide whether a ride involved in a death is reopened.

"The biggest concern in Florida is that there is no oversight," King said. "No doubt Disney has experts that are very familiar with how the rides should run. But in a case when someone is injured or killed, it just makes sense for a third party unrelated to Disney ... to say 'Hey, this ride is OK. Let's reopen it."'