Hot Air Balloon Crash Lands In Pflugerville, Reminding Of Aircraft's Dangers

PFLUGERVILLE, TX -- In a scary reminder of the deadly crash last month in Lockhart, Texas, another hot air balloon in Pflugerville had a hard landing, the not-so-gentle touchdown to earth captured by an onlooker.

A KXAN-TV viewer caught the hard landing on video. The hot air balloon came down hard next to a parking lot at the HEB grocery store at FM 685 and Pecan Street on Sunday, less than 100 feet from power lines, the news station reported.

The balloon's basket with three occupants inside toppled over upon landing, dragged along by the force of its own propulsion before coming to a stop. Pflugerville police told the station the pilot was forced to bring the balloon down after experiencing turbulence.

“Needless to say we were shocked to look up and see it coming,” the onlooker who took the video told the news station in an email.

Fortunately, no injuries were reported..

The sight of the falling balloon was reminiscent of the tragedy in Lockhart, a hot air balloon crash into power lines that killed 16 people in July. The same month, another hot air balloon in Longview crash landed as the pilot avoided power lines, although no one was injured in that incident.

Read the full story and watch the video at KXAN >>

>>> Image Credit: Glenna Barlow via Flickr Creative Commons (Not a picture of the balloon that crashed in Texas)