Hot Air Balloon Crash in Clinton, Massachusetts Injures 5

By Eric Zerkel
Published: July 20,2014 





 

 Residents of Clinton, Massachusetts, watched in terror Friday night as a hot air balloon flying low over the small town collided with power lines, sparking an explosion that injured five people.Video from the scene shows the balloon appearing to attempt to land in a residential area in the northwest side of town. The balloon has a few close calls with trees and power lines before it eventually flies too low and collides with a set of power lines. The collision sparks two separate explosions before the balloon finally reaches the ground. After the first, smoke can be seen emanating from the balloon's basket. A local firefighter told The Clinton Item, five of the balloon's six passengers suffered burns "ranging from minor to serious" and that they were transported to nearby Clinton Hospital for treatment.The Item reports that the balloon's pilot was attempting to land the balloon in a yard at the corner of Brook and Greeley Streets. It's not yet known why the pilot was attempting to land a hot air balloon in a crowded residential area, but the Federal Aviation Administration told CBS Boston that they were investigating the crash.According to weather.com meteorologist Nick Wiltgen, weather conditions in the area didn't appear to contribute to the incident."Weather conditions were about as benign as they could be on a July evening," said Wiltgen. "Ground-level winds were 8 mph or less at nearby observation sites. Weather balloons released on their usual schedule at Albany (New York), Cape Cod and Long Island minutes after the incident revealed winds less than 20 mph throughout the lowest 10,000 feet of the atmosphere, with no jarring changes in wind speed and direction at different altitudes."

Some 600 people in Clinton lost power immediately after the crash, but power was quickly restored to most residents, with the remaining outages restored in the early morning hours Sunday.




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Hot air balloons fill the sky in Cappadocia, Turkey. (Afonso Salcedo)