this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2026
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Here’s the full video:

https://youtu.be/cQFJYUuw_jo

No one was hurt! :)

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[–] Alpha71@lemmy.world 8 points 1 hour ago

Here's the thing they don't tell you about hot air balloons. You are completely and TOTALLY at the mercy of the wind.

I was guarding an empty warehouse on a quite Sunday afternoon. I was standing on the roof just relaxing. The warehouse was right on the edge of the city limits. Beyond it was nothing but farmland. Anyways while i was up there I noticed a hot air balloon starting to descend. It was descending and coming in at an angle quite fast. When it hit the ground I wold say it was still going about 30Kph. and the basket was dragged about a football fields length before it finally came to rest. while it was being dragged I could see two people just go ass over teakettle and fall out of the basket as it was being dragged along.

I assume it was an emergency landing because the wind had started picking up. Unfortunately the field they landed in didn't have any access that wasn't fenced off and was surrounded by deep ditches all around. The chase car drove everywhere around the field to try and get to them and eventually ended up driving up to a farmhouse and I assume they let them onto the field.

I had to get back to wandering the warehouse so I never got to see what finally happened. But it was and interesting part of a quiet Sunday.

[–] tpyo@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago

What a cool experience!

And I love how you were laughing the whole time. It really brought me a smile

[–] AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

That's seems like some House Party shit lol. Damn did two guys from an internet show jump out?

[–] LilDumpy@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

I figured it was Temecula!

[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 hour ago

No F-16s shot a Sidewinder at it?

[–] waterbird@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 7 hours ago

this is easily one of the coolest things i’ve seen in lemmy so far. :D

thank you for sharing!!

[–] LemmyThinkAboutIt@lemmy.zip 5 points 6 hours ago

I saw this on the news! I was watching the video about the bear suit insurance fraud and the story about this started playing right after.

[–] Mantzy81@aussie.zone 11 points 7 hours ago

Yeah nah mate, can't park there!

[–] Ioughttamow@fedia.io 96 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

You can’t park there mate

[–] Sunflier@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

Came here hoping to see this exact comment. The internet didn't disappoint.

[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 13 points 6 hours ago

They heat up the balloon so it just floats a little over the ground and then drag it by hand to a better parking spot to deflate and load in the trailer.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 7 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I know someone who had a transatlantic hot air balloon land in their family's field

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 6 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Used to be if a balloon landed on your property without leave they'd have a bottle of champagne for you as a thank you for not shooting. :)

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 4 points 3 hours ago (1 children)
[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 5 points 3 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 6 points 2 hours ago (1 children)
[–] NiHaDuncan@lemmy.world 5 points 1 hour ago

The world truly is filled with the strangest of cultures.

[–] slaacaa@lemmy.world 18 points 9 hours ago (1 children)
[–] sfbing@lemmy.world 6 points 7 hours ago

Finders Keepers Losers Weepers.

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 8 points 8 hours ago

That's such a cool photo

[–] ABasilPlant@lemmy.world 15 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

That's incredible! Makes the transportation nerd in me be fired up with jealousy! And fortunate that no one was hurt, the pilot and the helpers really did a great job jumping your house. Was there any reason they told you why they had to make an emergency landing? Maybe I missed that part.

But it looks like the gondola is lop-sided from the video. Is that it? Seems like the whole neighborhood came out to watch the spectacle :D

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 22 points 9 hours ago

He said the winds died down, and he didn’t have enough fuel to keep it up any longer, so he had to set it down. The gondola being lopsided was only once everyone had gotten out and the pilot was the only one in there. It was a big basket too. There were 13 people on board (including the pilot).

[–] Fondots@lemmy.world 39 points 11 hours ago (3 children)

I've heard a lot of hot air balloon pilots carry a bottle of wine or something with them to help smooth things over with property owners who are unhappy about them landing on their property.

So did you get anything good?

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 hours ago

Like in games, when a rare chance occurrence happens like this, and you talk to the pilot and he gives you a rare item (untradeable, of course)

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 47 points 11 hours ago

No, nothing like that. I got a really good story and video out of it, which is enough for me. :) I’m really glad he was able to set it down without anyone being hurt.

[–] jacksilver@lemmy.world 23 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Came here to ask this. Growing up we'd have hot air balloons land in our neighborhood pretty frequently, they'd usually have a bottle of wine to hand out.

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 hours ago

Yeah our neighbors got one it missed our property line by less than 20 feet. They got a bottle of champagne or wine. But it was provably 30 years ago.

The funny thing was in the mid 80s, chase vehicles would come down or street all the time and get stuck because it’s a huge circle with no outlet and 4 long cul du sacs along the way, but the maps showed a second outlet road that was never built and blocked off as a fire road.

They’d blast back up the road once they finally figured it out and have to catch up. This was all way before GPS and cell phones, so if they lost sight of the balloon they’d have to go back to sone office and wait for the pilot to call in.

[–] favoredponcho@lemmy.zip 26 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

Looks like something out of a Pixar movie

[–] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 14 points 10 hours ago

What goes Up must come Down

[–] Martineski@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Initiall I thought that someone set up a prop to make "Up" reference since it's the pics cmmunity. It turned out to be even better.

[–] ABasilPlant@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Someone in the video also said it looks like Up (at 5:59-ish)

[–] Martineski@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 9 hours ago

Yup, watched it whole. :D

[–] gergolippai@lemmy.world 11 points 9 hours ago

from the european turkish union!

[–] Speculater@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

The gentle argument at the end of who gets to stay home 😆

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 hour ago

Lol, we definitely both wanted to. :)

[–] dgriffith@aussie.zone 14 points 12 hours ago

Now there's something you don't see every day

[–] Martineski@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 9 hours ago

Amazing. Thank you for sharing.

[–] thagoat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Looks like your garage is bigger than your house. Nice.

[–] OldChicoAle@lemmy.world 21 points 11 hours ago (3 children)

It's kinda like my house. I like to call it "front loading the house" you stick the garage out a lot and put most rooms behind it so your living space is more private from the street. There's an extra buffer layer between you and whatever is happening on the street. The house can still be very big, but it's sort of tucked away.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 5 points 10 hours ago

Just that in this pic, it looks like the balloon isn’t that far back. Though this could be a “ranch style” tract house which is usually this L shape, with the garage being on the short line of the L. This looks like california, where those used to be common. (Though this looks a bit newer.)

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 5 points 11 hours ago

Yep, I like it a lot. :)

[–] Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 10 hours ago

So you don't want living space to be a part of the community.

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 9 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

Does this count as a solar eclipse?

[–] GreenShimada@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

No but I'd have been very excited if I saw it!