ORLANDO, Fla. — The Orlando FreeFall, the 430-foot tall drop tower attraction on International Drive, will be torn down, its ride operators announced Thursday.

The attraction at ICON Park has been closed since March, after 14-year-old Tyre Sampson died after falling from the ride about halfway down the ride’s drop.

Orlando Slingshot, which owns the attraction, released a statement saying the decision to take it down came after calls from the public.

“We are devastated by Tyre’s death,” Slingshot CEO Ritchie Armstrong said in the statement. “We have listened to the wishes of Tyre’s family and the community, and have made the decision to take down the FreeFall.”

Armstrong also announced that the company will create a scholarship in Tyre’s name to honor the teen’s “legacy in the classroom and on the football field.”

“Details of the scholarship are being developed and further information will be shared in the future after consultation with the family of Tyre,” the company said in a statement.

Lawyers representing Nekia Dodd, Sampson’s mom, said they weren’t aware of details about Slingshot’s planned scholarship, but said they’d support it as long as it’s something that might help other parents or children in similar situations.

“If there is a scholarship, hopefully we can be involved in the parameters and what that scholarship is going to mean in the future,” said Dodd's attorney Kimberly Wald.

Wald said Dodd is relieved that the ride will be shut down, but said the lawsuit against the company would still be moving forward.

“This is only one piece of the puzzle,” Wald said. “Simply shutting down one ride, that’s not going to be enough. So Nekia is in this for the long haul.”

Although Wald characterized the ride’s closure as “one great step,” she said much more still needs to be done to improve amusement ride regulations and oversight. That’s a perspective shared by certified amusement ride inspector Ken Martin, who’s worked in the industry for nearly 30 years.

“There needs to be more oversight, and it needs to come from the national level. It really does,” Martin previously told Spectrum News. 

Right now, the American Society for Testing and Materials sets ride safety guidelines — but those aren't actual laws. 

Martin said Thursday that after Sampson’s tragic death in March, Pennsylvania immediately issued a notice to all its amusement ride operators, urging them to double-check their rides and ensure they met manufacturers’ guidelines. 

But that was a choice Pennsylvania made, Martin said. The state wasn’t following any law — because right now, there isn’t one.

“When something like this happens, a notice needs to go out to every state, to every amusement ride owner, and that ride needs to be properly inspected,” Martin said.

Slingshot, in its announcement Thursday, did not provide a timeline for when the attraction would be taken down, saying it would depend on "approvals from all parties involved as well as regulatory entities.” 

ICON Park, which leases the land to Slingshot for the attraction, issued its own statement, saying it supports the removal of the FreeFall.

“Tyre’s death is a tragedy that we will never forget,” the company said. “As the landlord, ICON Park welcomes and appreciates Orlando Slingshot’s decision to take down the ride.”

On March 24, Tyre, who was visiting Orlando from Missouri, slipped from the restraints of the FreeFall as the ride was descending. He was taken to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children where he was pronounced dead. Following his death, the ride as well as the Orlando Slingshot was shut down. Tyre's family have repeatedly called for the ride to be torn down, with his mother Nekia Dodd releasing a statement in July saying the ride was a "monument to this preventable tragedy."

"The ride's mere existence is an insult to the memory of my son and makes each day since he was killed even more impossible for those of us who loved Tyre every day of his life," she said.

After the accident, an investigation into the ride's safety was also launched. In April, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, released an engineering report that found that some sensors on the FreeFall had modified allowing the restraints to open wider, making it "unsafe."

According to the operators manual for the FreeFall, the maximum weight limit for riders is 130 kg or 287 pounds. At the time of the accident, Tyre, who was 6-foot-2, weighed 380 pounds.

Ben Crump and Bob Hilliard, attorneys for Yarnell Sampson, Tyre's father, said the decision to remove the ride was "long overdue."

"While this announcement is long overdue, the new today is a relief to Tyre Sampson's grieving father, who has been advocating for this since the day Tyre fell to his death," the statement read. "The Orlando Free Fall ride never should have been permitted to operate under those faulty conditions. Theme parks, their parent companies, and regulatory agencies must do better to prevent this kind of tragedy from happening to any other family."

Tyre's family filed a lawsuit against Orlando Slingshot, ICON Park and the ride's manufacturers in April. The lawsuit alleges that the companies involved knew the ride was unsafe and did not have proper signage about weight and height requirements.

In response to news of the planned demolition of the ride, the Florida Department of Agriculture released the following statement:

"While the investigation is still ongoing, Commissioner (Nikki) Fried hopes that this news brings a measure of comfort to the family of Tyre Sampson and to the Orlando community."