‘Balloon crash’ not all it seemed....
THIS was the moment a balloon from Bristol made what at first looked like an bumpy landing in woodland near Keynsham on an early morning flight.
The balloon is understood to have taken off from Ashton Court just before 7am on Saturday and flew south east over Bristol before coming down between Hanham and Keynsham.
Balloon-watcher Julia Wimbush was at a car boot sale at Keynsham Rugby Club when she filmed the balloon coming in.
“We usually go out early to look for the balloons and we thought we’d missed them so went to the car boot,” she said.
“Two were coming in and this blue one was coming down. It was going up and down a bit, probably trying to find somewhere safe to land and then suddenly it dropped into the trees on the other side of the bypass and railway line. It was worrying, I hope everyone is ok.”
But the video looked more dramatic than the incident itself, and local balloonists were quick to reassure people everyone was fine, and the balloon landed in a clearing that wasn’t visible from the rugby club.
MJ Ballooning said: “It’s just a balloon safely landing in a small patch surrounded by some trees. All fine. This was a very safe landing.” And the balloonist involved, Matt Cooper, said the balloon was ‘nowhere near the trees’. “What you witnessed was a balloon landing... we were nowhere near the trees,” he said.