Hot Air Balloon

[South_Belfast_Bee]

Tragic crash in Egypt this morning. Didn't seem hard for BBC and Sky News to find people who had similarly dodgy experiences with balloon trips in Egypt.

Has anyone here ever been up in one?

[Golf Delta]

Yep, twice. Once in Orlando and once over here with a good friend of mine who is a balloon pilot. It's safe, but like anything, accidents do occasionally happen.

[hoofer2]

I have been up twice over the countryside near Biscester;.

The second descent was disastrous and an old lady cracked my ribs. The balloon dropped far too quickly
and the old bag did not hold on as instructed and landed knees first on my chest as the basket toppled
when the balloon landed. it then got dragged 50m through a field, as the canopy was taken by the wind,
until the basket got stuck in a blackthorn hedge. The balloon pilot in the support team passed comment that
he was very concerned about the landing as it was the far too fast. We then had to make a swift exit as the
angry farmer was furious at the damage the balloon had done to his field.

[bucks bee]

Yes, in Cappadocia, Turkey. Magical experience, but our pilot cut it short after the wind started to get too strong. He said that many of the other balloons, disappearing rapidly towards the horizon, were crazy not to have come down straight away.