NBC: 16 might be dead in hot air balloon fire, crash

Nothing confirmed.

 

Can't understand why anyone would choose this mode of transportation in the 21st century. A balloon. A basket. Fire. WCGW?

 

It's recreation. Same reason choose to float down Class III rapids with 20 pounds of plastic between their ass and 10,000 GPM of rushing water. WCGW?

 

Not nearly as much, given the recent hot air balloon tragedies.

 

Source tells CNN that they are ruling out terrorism as cause

 

Pictures from the crash site seem to indicate they hit a power line.

 

Funny you mention that. We went rafting down the Royal Gorge 3 weeks ago. Saw everything from Class 1 float trip rapids to Class 5 Niagara Falls rapids. Very good experience, but my wife said there's not a way in hell she'd do it again. I probably would.

 

I took my gf on a hot air balloon ride for her birthday last year. I'm not afraid of heights but it was pretty damn nerve wracking, not least when we started descending and almost hit power lines. Like missed them by 15 feet. I mean, you really can't shake the knowledge you're in an open air basket hundreds of feet off the ground. Ten times more exhilarating than any roller coaster I've ever been on. Woman in other basket freaked out and they had to land to drop her off before resuming. We landed in a parking lot and the other basket in our group landed in someone's front yard. Still, the scenery was pretty damn breathtaking in the Hudson valley and I would probably do it again. It was pretty expensive though, like a couple hundie for like 45 minutes. And you have to go at sunrise before the ground heats up and the air is hot.

 

Before we go, any questions?

"Where will we land?"
"I don't know."

"What about power lines?"
"We might hit some."

 

Saw a hot-air balloon crash when I was a teenager bike riding in the hills on the edge of my town. Gondola hit the ground hard, but the two on board quickly got out and dusted themselves off.

 

Did it once in Perris, CA., in Riverside County. We flew over a railroad graveyard, which was OK. I was trying to be cool. The pilot seemed like a whackadoodle. We landed in a field that was pretty safe. At the end, he said he had a trainee he was taking up and we could go again with them. I volunteered to drive the chase truck.

 

I set up a balloon ride for a football tab photo shoot about 10 years ago. Unfortunately, we got stormed out and we had to do the photos on the ground.

That was my first and to date only chance to ride a hot air balloon. I still want to do it someday.