Hot air balloon with 13 passengers on board CRASHES in Melbourne – with the basket sandwiched between a house and a block of units
- A hot air balloon has crashed in Melbourne’s south
- The balloon had 13 passengers on board, but no one was injured
- The pilot says one of the balloon’s valves suffered a malfunction
- He tried to land the beach, but ran out of heat and did not get there in time
- Do you know more? Email cameron.carpenter@dailymail.com
A hot air balloon has crashed into the backyard of a property in Melbourne‘s south.
The balloon, which had 13 passengers on board, crashed about 7:20am at Tiuna Grove in Elwood, police said.
Emergency services were called to the scene, but no injuries were reported.
The balloon is draped across several properties.
The balloon’s pilot, Nick Brau, of Liberty Flights, said he was trying to land at Elwood beach which was only 200 metres away.
A hot air balloon crash landed in Melbourne on Wednesday morning with 13 passengers on board, remarkably no one was injured
‘We had a malfunction with one of the valves in the balloon,’ he told the Today Show.
‘So we were losing a lot of heat. I was trying to take it to the beach only 200 metres away. Just didn’t manage to get there.’
Mr Brau, who has more than 27-years experience ballooning, said this is the first time he’s come down.
Nicola was walking her dog when she saw the balloon coming down.
‘It was pretty scary,’ she told 3AW. ‘It looked like it was trying to make it to the beach but it obviously didn’t get there.’
Karen, who lives on Tiuna Grove, heard the landing.
‘I thought it was a garbage man collecting the garbage bins!,’ she explained. ‘Apparently it was their third attempt at landing.’
More to come.
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