A large yellow hot air balloon was forced to make an emergency landing around 7:15pm in Circleville. Many residents saw the balloon going down, and we have exclusive video of the craft being forced to land in Circleville.
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Fortunately for the pilot and the house it landed near on Beaver Alley, no one was hurt. Bev Garrett was one of the residents that witnessed the surprise landing in the middle of Circleville.
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“How he maneuvered around the [electric] pole was amazing”
According to the pilot that surprised Bev, such an event is not out of the ordinary. Shortly after the emergency landing, Bev was quoted as saying “when he landed he put the basket in the back of the truck and tucked the balloon in and drove off.”
Our reporter, Jeremy Newman, arrived on-site around 8:10pm and was unable to locate the pilot who gave the town a big, yellow surprise.
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Bev wasn’t the only person that noticed, though. Alicia Carroll, 28, saw the balloon coming down and took fantastic additional pictures while it was making its way to Beaver Alley
Finally, we recieved video from Joyce Adams with the last few moments of the balloon before it hit terra firma:
Editors note: The article was edited to remove “Crash landing”. It did not crash, and descended without accident.
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I don’t see anything other than a normal balloon landing. Maybe next time reach out to someone that has some experience in the field or the local ballooning community before publishing random witness quotes and affixing words like “forced to land” and “emergency” to your article.
This is how balloons normally land. Your bad reporting is hurting the community and destroying credibility of news sources. Please find a pilot in your area and go for a ride so you can accurately report ballooning is a fantastic experience!
This was no emergency! This is how a balloon lands, and it happens everyday. You are creating “fake news” with headlines, statements, and mis-information from uneducated sources. Get your facts right before creating panic.
Thanks for the feedback folks.
Our story is based on the photos and video, but also interviews with witnesses. More than one expressed that the landing was dangerous, being very close to power lines. Our initial information was that it was an emergency landing due to equipment malfunction. We’ve since learned that the biggest issue was lack of wind to get to a landing spot in a more desirable location. We still don’t believe that this landing was normal or without peril due to the dangerous obstacles near the landing area. At least 3 witnesses used the word “crash” without being provoked to do so.
With all that said, we’re always open to learning, and we’ll be reaching out to some of you for additional information. We’ll also attempt to contact this pilot or another local pilot to become more informed on the subject.
We don’t have an agenda against balloons, their pilots, or the ballooning community, and we still believe that the event itself was sensational and definitely not a normal occurrence in Circleville. The reader comments, feedback, and sharing behavior confirm this. We also understand that the ballooning community deals with negative press, and that some of the comments are prompted by a desire to minimize that.
I suppose if cars were out of the ordinary in Circleville I should expect an article describing the horror of a car being “forced” to enter a parking space and the surprise stop that occurred when its wheels bumped the concrete parking block. Make sure to include quotes from witnesses who have never seen a car, much less one when it is in the act of parking.
Your not nice saying fake news..far from fake news..
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