A passenger’s harrowing experience on a hot air balloon has been revealed after it came crashing down in Melbourne’s inner south on Wednesday morning.
The video shows the balloon first hitting a building, before crashing through some trees and hitting the ground with a loud thud in Elwood.
Victoria Police said the balloon and the 13 people on board crashed about 7.20am in Tiuna Grove.
It was reportedly the third time the Liberty Flights balloon had attempted to land after being in the air for about half an hour.
Emergency services were called to the scene, but there were no injuries.
The basket landed in the driveway, with photos of the scene showing the balloon draped over an apartment block building and trees.
Pilot Nick Braw told 3AW some sort of malfunction had happened.
“I can’t explain what the malfunction is, so I don’t know want what caused it,” he said.
“But the valve that releases hot air from the top, which we use to manoeuvre the balloon, didn’t seal properly.
“It was a bit difficult to keep the balloon up in the air. I was flying low to try to bring it down.
“I was aiming for the beach but we didn’t make it by about 200 metres.”
Mr Braw, who has been flying for 27 years, said it was the first time this had happened to him.
He also made it clear it was an “emergency landing” and not a “crash landing”.
“There was control as we came down, it’s not as if we fell out of the sky,” he said.
Nicola, who saw it from the beach, also told 3AW she was given a “shock” when she saw the balloon coming down.
She said it “bounced along a few treexjmtzyws when it landed”, but everyone seemed okay.
“Scary, but everyone’s okay,” she said.
“No one was screaming, everyone was really calm.”
A couple of people on board also told her that it was their third attempt to land.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has opened an investigation into the crash.
“Transport safety investigators from our Melbourne office arrived on site earlier this morning to begin the evidence collection phase of our investigation,” Stuart Godley said.
“Investigators have begun the process of interviewing the balloon’s pilot and passengers as well as witnesses to the accident.
“Investigators also retrieved the balloon for specialist examination at an independent technical facility, and will review operator procedures and records.”
The ATSB will publish a final report when the investigation is finished, though if any critical safety issues are identified the organisation will notify the relevant parties immediately.
