Balloon w/ 13 ppl + emergency landing: "It was really nifty"

[MerlinFAC]

I would have loved to have seen this scene... I like the part about how they made prior arrangements to close the landing site... kind of like calling your shot, huh?

From: http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/07/15/14719846.html

Balloon makes emergency landing in Ottawa

By Doug Hempstead, QMI Agency
Last Updated: July 15, 2010 9:27am

PHOTO CAPTION: A hot air balloon went down on Meadowlands Dr., between Woodroffe and Merivale on Wednesday, July 14, 2010. No one was injured after the balloon apparently got caught by a gust of wind, and somehow part of it caught fire. (Jonathan Kuhn/Submitted photo)

OTTAWA — A hot-air balloon shut down traffic on an Ottawa street Wednesday night.

The CTV balloon, operated by Sundance Balloons, had to make an emergency landing on Meadowlands Ave. at Laird St. shortly after 8 p.m.

Police inspector Mark Ford said he didn’t know exactly what the problem was, except that the operators “had difficulty.”

There were 13 people in the basket.

Steffi Tinneberg saw the landing.

“I thought it might be landing on the street behind us, but then all of a sudden it lifts up and I heard a lot of shouting and people called 911, and the people in the basket said we’re OK,” Tinneberg said.

She said the balloon went up and over the house and she saw the operators firing the flames before it landed on the street in front of the house.

“The basket landed right by the tree by this person’s house and the police car was already here blocking traffic. It was really nifty because the police car was covered in the balloon after.”

Tinneberg found the landing rather entertaining.

“A little excitement for the neighbourhood, everyone’s safe, no one was hurt.”

Ford said the operators of the balloon contacted the airport control tower which made arrangements for the road to be closed prior to the emergency landing.

doug.hempstead@sunmedia.ca