Hot Air Balloon Crash, Clinton, Massachusetts: Hits Power Lines and Catches Fire, Injuring Five People
A hot air balloon flying in Clinton, Massachusetts, Saturday evening crashed into power lines while trying to land. The balloon then caught on fire, injuring the five passengers aboard.
The accident was caught on film by a concerned bystander, who narrated the footage as he recorded. The man sounded calm at first, but as the hot air balloon hit the power lines and large sparks started to come off the balloon, he seems to get increasingly upset, shouting and cursing along with other onlookers as the hot air balloon continued to land.
One witness told Boston's WBZ-TV radio station there was a huge explosion following the balloon's run-in with the power lines. The witness, Bob King, told the station he was surprised the balloon riders were alive. He says he thought "they were gone."
"[It was a] big flash of red right in front of you and then another one," King said. "Never seen anything like it, and I'm still shaking from it. We thought they were gone, we thought they were gone. Everybody was calling 911."
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed to WBZ-TV that the hot air balloon was attempting to land in a residential area around 7:40 p.m. when it hit the electrical wires nearby Greeley and Brooke Streets. The FAA also added that it would investigate the crash further.
No one was killed but all five people on board the air balloon suffered burns from the accident. The collision knocked out power to dozens of homes in the surrounding neighborhood.
According to National Grid spokesperson David Graves, the crash initially knocked out power to nearly 600 customers. And 85 of those customers were still without power at 9:45 p.m., and it took another three hours before everyone's power was restored.
The accompanying video was shot during the crash. Its audio has been removed because of profanity.
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