In Texas, It Was ‘Not an Everyday Rescue’
In this photo, firefighters work to extract two passengers from a hot-air balloon that crashed into a communications tower on Saturday in Longview, Texas. (Longview Fire Department via AP)
A weekend hot air balloon ride in East Texas turned into a dramatic rescue after the balloon became entangled with a cell tower more than 900 feet above the ground. The incident occurred around 8:15 a.m. Saturday in Longview, where a man and woman were stranded on the tower’s upper structure, according to the Longview Fire Department and Click2Houston.
Special operations crews began climbing the tower about 30 minutes later, connecting several 300-foot ropes to reach the couple. Stephen Winchell of the Longview Fire Department called it “not an everyday rescue.” First responders reached the balloon passengers around 10 a.m., secured them to the tower, and by just after 12:45 p.m., both were safely back on solid ground.
The pair were conscious and appeared uninjured, though they were taken to a hospital as a precaution. Winchell described the operation as “pretty smooth” considering the circumstances. He noted that the passengers’ physical condition and courage played a key role in the rescue. “If it had been people who were injured or less capable, we would have had to climb into the basket ourselves, which would have added a significant degree of difficulty,” he told KLTV. “We were concerned about whether they could handle climbing out of the basket with nothing beneath them for 900 feet, just from the mental stress alone.”
Authorities are still investigating how the balloon ended up hitting the tower, reports Click2Houston.
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