Residents race to help 15 victims after balloon crashes second time in same neighborhood

SAN DIEGO — What was meant to be a leisurely flight sipping champagne while viewing San Diego’s beautiful sunset from 2,000 feet turned into a scary experience and came to a crashing halt for a group of balloon enthusiasts when a commercially chartered hot air balloon lost altitude and plummeted into a Rancho Penasquitos neighborhood early Sunday evening.

Balloon tours usually cruise between 1200 to 3,000 feet and in many areas are required to maintain an altitude of at least 1,000 feet, except when taking off or landing and the large vessel’s unexpected descent into the normally quiet, family filled neighborhood brought crowds of curious onlookers as well as emergency first responders racing to the scene.

Citizens and first responders quickly came to the rescue after the balloon’s hard landing, helping fifteen people escape injury when the balloon’s gondola was left temporarily stranded, teetering precariously close to the steep edge of a hill, just west of Penasquitos Drive and Del Diablo Street.

SEE ALSO: Deputies go in hot pursuit of hot-dogging private balloon enthusiasts who buzzed neighborhood

According to officials, this was the second time the same balloon has made an “unplanned landing” in the same Rancho Penasquitos neighborhood. There were no injuries reported in this or the previous incident, which happened March, 2017.

In spite of the similar incidents, Sky’s The Limit Ballooning Adventures, the company that owns and operates the “Hendrick’s balloon” – the largest in its fleet that can accommodate up to 16 passengers and a pilot – says the family owned company has more than 24 years experience in the business and has flown more than 60,000 passengers “without incident” throughout California.

“We are proud of our fleet of state of the art, impeccably maintained European style balloons,” the company’s website proudly proclaims. “Each one is inspected daily by our pilots and crew and every 100 hours of flying by a FAA certified inspection facility to make sure that the balloons are always in prime condition.”

According to their website, the company charters sunrise and sunset flights out of San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco; and also offers morning and evening “champagne flights” over Santa Barbara, Del Mar and Temecula.

Balloon’s decent into neighborhood brings citizens, emergency responders

According to witnesses, the balloon’s gondola crashed through a backyard fence – narrowly missing a hilltop home – before hitting and bouncing off the ground.

After landing again, the basket was dragged to the edge of a steep hill ledge overlooking Penasquitos Road about 20 feet below.

Even before the balloon came to a complete stop, area residents who had scrambled up the steep slope helped secure the balloon’s large gondola after it crashed onto the hillside.

Videos and photographs of the high-profile crash, which has already gained worldwide attention, were captured and later shared by dozens of eyewitnesses; many of whom whipped out their smart phones and started filming while the balloon was still coming down.

The crash was also caught by several area home security systems and one person even captured portions of the crash and emergency response in a spectacular drone video, showing the incident in high-definition from a unique, overhead perspective.

First signs of trouble

According to San Diego Police Lieutenant Andra Brown, the balloon’s pilot first reported problems while approaching the Black Mountain area shortly before 7:30 p.m.

With a company chase van in hot pursuit and a ground monitor keeping a watchful eye on the rapidly descending balloon, the pilot reported he was going to attempt to set the balloon down on the campus of nearby Rolling Hills Elementary.

For an unknown reason, but possibly due to a strong cross-wind mentioned by several area residents and officials, the balloon was not able to approach the school from the correct angle and overshot the small campus.

After passing between the school and the Rancho Penasquitos Water Tower, the balloon continued on for another 800 feet or more. As the balloon was coming down in the Carmel Mountain Ranch community the pilot could be seen – and heard – repeatedly firing the gondola’s propane burners, either to regain altitude or possibly slow the balloon’s rapid descent.

After crashing through a backyard the balloon’s wicker gondola – filled to near capacity with one pilot and fourteen passengers according to Brown – hit the hilltop and bounced up in the air. Still moving in a south-easterly direction, the basket then came back down and was dragged toward the very edge of the steep hill and drop down to Penasquitos Road.

Already alerted to the potential air emergency by the company as well as countless 911 callers, San Diego Police and Fire personnel were already headed to the scene before the balloon even touched down, arriving at the scene even as the balloon’s envelope was still deflating.

Several area residents were filmed running to the aid of the downed balloon and were already at the gondola’s side as it skidded to a halt – stopped by a bush, mere feet from the edge of the hill and drop. They reportedly helped stabilize the balloon’s enormous basket, to keep it from being dragged over the edge of the hill and onto Penasquitos Drive.

According to officials, had the basket become unstable due to the slowly descending balloon, the entire basket could have tipped over – potentially dropping the pilot and passengers to the busy roadway below.

Ignoring the danger, citizens and officials rush to the rescue

The balloon had not even come to a stop at the edge of the hilltop when the first of countless area residents arrived at the scene of the crash to try to help.

After the hard landing the pilot fired the gondola’s burners several more times, possibly in an effort to slow the envelope’s inevitable decent to the ground below.

While the balloon was still deflating, vehicles and pedestrians began flooding into the hillside neighborhood from every direction, clogging the streets and creating havoc for first responders still rushing to the scene. Officials quickly shut down the road and began working to divert cars back the way they had just come.

In spite of the gondola’s precarious position, due to the danger of becoming trapped under the heavy weight of the balloon, its passengers were forced to remain inside the basket until the balloon had a chance to fully deflate.

The balloon took a full ten minutes to deflate and as the envelope slowly lowered to the steep hillside, area residents could be heard shouting and excitedly discussing the spectacle. Once the balloon fully deflated the passengers and pilot were able to safely disembark the gondola.

Witnesses from the ground and balloon share their experiences

Saying a balloon dropping into a residential neighborhood was “not something you see everyday,” area resident Joseph McGhee was one of the very first citizens at the scene and helped stabilize the basket as it sat atop the hill.

McGhee later told NBC7 News he had been enjoying a barbecue with several friends when they spotted the balloon’s rapid descent.

Not realizing the balloon was in trouble and thinking the pilot was possibly pulling a low flying stunt, such as an incident that happened in Yucaipa last February when officials on the ground had to chase down two balloon enthuisiasts after they decided to buzz the rooftops of a residential neighborhood, he and his friends ran to the scene to get a better look.

McGhee quickly realized the danger when he and his friends saw the balloon’s basket hit the ground hard and rebound skyward – momentarily gaining altitude – before coming down again and being dragged toward Penasquito Road.

“The wind shifted, I guess and they kind of got caught in the mountains over here,” McGhee explained, motioning toward the direction the balloon had just come from.

After being dragged, the gondola “got stuck in a bush and then it picked up,” said McGhee. “It started to tip, so me and my friends ran down here and kind of tried to anchor (the basket) ’till the firefighters and police came to help.”

According to McGhee, the pilot and other employees appeared “pretty calm” about the hard landing and remained professional throughout the ordeal.

“They were trying to keep everyone calm but you could tell they were pretty scared too,” McGhee described.

Another witness, Oceanside resident Diane Reynoso later explained she was visiting family in the area when she heard people yelling about the balloon’s descent. She looked just in time to see the basket hit the hilltop before being dragged. A retired emergency room nurse, Reynoso said she was one of countless witnesses who ran all the way to the scene to see if she could help.

“Some of them were pretty shaken,” Reynoso said of the balloon passengers. “Several were holding each other and some were laughing nervously, happy to be safe. At least one of the women was crying, according to Reynoso.

“I couldn’t tell if she was crying out of fear or relief,” said Reynoso, concluding, “Or maybe both.”

Officials who responded to the emergency were quick to point out that area residents were instrumental in ensuring everyone walked away unharmed from the incident.

“The community really came together,” Brown said, praising citizens’ efforts during the tense minutes immediately after the hard landing. “Were it not for area residents there may have been some injuries here.”

“They put a long strap on the basket to keep it from toppling down this incline so everybody could get out safely,” Brown explained, motioning upward toward the top of the hill where the gondola had come to rest.

According to Brown, in spite of the “unplanned landing” and the fact that the stranded passengers were forced to work out their own rides back to Carlsbad, most said they “couldn’t wait to go ballooning again.”

After her feet were safely back on terra firma, one of the balloon’s passengers, Natalie Lackey, later joked about the unexpected excitement with OnScene.TV.

“It was pretty crazy actually because I’m really scared of heights,” Lackey explained, saying in spite of her fear, she had expected everything to go smoothly. “The weather was perfect for the trip, so it was unexpected,” said Lackey.

Asked if she ever planned on going ballooning again, Lackey laughed and responded, “Not a chance.”

Several hours later, a neighborhood returns to normal

Neither the balloon or wheelchair accessible gondola appeared damaged by the incident, but company officials had not yet had a chance to conduct a thorough inspection of the basket or balloon’s 275,000 cubic feet of hand-woven cloth.

Several hours after the unexpected and high-profile incident, employees loaded the gondola and packaged balloon onto a large, flatbed trailer and transported both from the neighborhood for a closer, more thorough inspection.

Police later said they were not sure what forced the balloon to make the emergency landing but its propane tanks had “plenty of fuel” left. The National Transportation Safety Board has been notified and is now investigating the incident, according to officials.

As of Monday morning, Sky’s The Limit had not yet responded to a request for information about the accident.

Click any image to open full-size gallery.

Video posted by Christine Earnest shows the balloon’s descent as seen from a nearby apartment complex.

Dramatic footage captured by area resident Jordan Jennette showed the balloon’s dramatic emergency landing.

OnScene.TV video from location of crash.

 

Contact the writer: [email protected]

Trevor Montgomery, 46, recently moved to Shasta County from Riverside County and runs Riverside County News Source and Shasta County News Source. Additionally, he writes for Riverside County based newspapers Valley News, The Valley Chronicle and Anza Valley Outlook as well as Bonsall/Fallbrook Village News in San Diego County.

Trevor spent 10 years in the U.S. Army as an Orthopedic Specialist before joining the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in 1998. He was medically retired after losing his leg, breaking his back and suffering both spinal cord and brain injuries in an off-duty accident.

During his time with the sheriff’s department, Trevor worked at several different stations, including Robert Presley Detention Center, Southwest Station in Temecula, Hemet/Valle Vista Station, Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center and Lake Elsinore Station, along with other locations.