Family members of the four people killed at Dreamworld after a ride malfunction have chosen to watch CCTV footage of the tragedy in a Queensland Coroner’s Court.

The footage was played in a closed court on Thursday, the ninth day of an inquest into the Thunder River Rapids Ride tragedy.

Several family members chose to remain in the Gold Coast court as the footage was played.

The inquest is investigating the deaths of Cindy Low, Kate Goodchild, her brother Luke Dorsett and his partner Roozi Araghi on October 25, 2016.

The four were travelling on a raft on the 30-year-old ride when it collided with another raft and partially flipped.

Earlier a former Dreamworld employee described witnessing an incident in which four rafts collided on the Thunder River Rapids ride more than 15 years earlier.

Joe Stenning was beginning a shift as a deckhand on the ride in January 2001 when the empty rafts collided, forcing one to flip over.

The incident has similarities to the fatal event.

Mr Stenning told the inquest the incident had been “frightening”.

“As you can imagine, it was pretty unreal to witness,” Mr Stenning said on Thursday.

The inquest was shown an incident report from Dreamworld in which visitor distraction, the absence of a second operator due to illness and an “employee panicking” were listed among contributing factors to the 2001 collision.

Mr Stenning said he couldn’t recall if he had any emergency training or re-training on the Thunder River Rapids ride after the incident.

On Wednesday, the inquest heard Dreamworld staff had openly discussed among themselves their desire to practice emergency drills before the 2016 tragedy.

“It was something that as operators we talked about wanting,” training and compliance officer Amy Crisp said.

Dreamworld electrician Jacob Wilson attended two water pump failures in the days leading up to the tragedy.

The water pump failed twice on the day of the tragedy. A third failure contributed to the fatal incident.

Mr Wilson agreed with barrister Matthew Hickey, representing Ms Low’s family, when he was asked if an electrical shutdown for the ride could have “easily been installed”.

The inquest continues.

-AAP