by Mandy Johnson
It started out as any other day, or so it seemed. The weather here has been a little strange and we have been flying in different directions then normal. Not bad directions, just different. Today was to be the same. I had two passengers scheduled and, due to the warmth of the day, decided to use one of our students newer Aerostar Rally 90's for the flight instead of my 77. I had discussed using the balloon with him earlier in the week but did not call the night before to confirm. Oh well, I'll talk to him later and remind him we had talked.
Another balloon was flying that Thursday morning. It was a student pilot, signed off to solo, and she was going it alone with her crew. We gave her one of our radios in case she needed anything or got nervous or whatever and headed out not expecting anything out of the usual. As we thought, when we took off, the winds aloft were "not normal" for this area and in the directions down low it looked to be a short flight up on the west hill. I continued climbing, hoping to find a "stalling" altitude where things were slower or a different direction. Within 1000 feet of our ceiling here, I found just that, a stalling altitude and hung out for about 20 minutes without moving more than a city block. My passengers commented on such. I watched as the student below tried maneuvers during her flight with nothing but small fields in the valley area we found ourselves in. Finally she opted to fly up on the hill where the winds were taking her and where there were more options. She was doing well and as I descended to follow her up the hill, it looked as though she had landed already, quite a way ahead of me.
In that area we were flying for, there is a major set of powerlines that run east west up the hill. We were traveling north/northwest. Winds on the surface were pretty light and the student had flown beyond the powerlines and landed. I had several large fields before the powerlines lined up and explained to my passengers my intentions. My crew obtained permission from the first landowner and were waiting for us to come in. As I approached I saw several cattle who appeared to be getting antsy. By radio I asked the crew if the landowner was concerned about the cattle spooking and he was not so hot on our scaring them, As the winds were light and there were several more options to land, I waved the crew off and sent them down the road to the next field to obtain permission.
As I approached the crew remarked that the grass was unusually high, no one was home and there was a service line in the middle of the field. I remarked to my passengers that there was a great HUGE grass lawn ahead, a dirt road, beyond that a scrub field, then the powerlines, and if I didn't feel comfortable landing soon we would fly on, staying high to give the powerlines a wide berth, and land at one of the other options beyond them. I was descending gradually and at tree top level now. There was a couple in the grass lawn and I called down for permission to land as my crew had not yet found the dirt road back to there. I heard sirens and figured they may have to wait for them to pass to come back to me. The couple turned out to be the landowners and gave me permission to land. Even better, they offered to assist and as we glided in they put weight on.
No sooner had we landed then the fire truck and paramedics roared back on the road to where we were. I instructed my crew to follow them in and everything was fine. Nice soft landing, passengers were happy, landowner was happy, but someone had called 911. This was not the first time this had happened to us. As the paramedics jumped out and started unloading gear, I hollered as best I could from that distance that everyone was fine, it was a normal landing, please don't trouble to drag all that stuff out there. The field was that big, at least an acre, I was on grass lawn, then there was a large garden, and then the dirt road. All I could figure was someone thought I was too close to those powerlines and had called 911. At the time I did not realize we were being circled by planes above but that was about to come to my attention.
After assuring the firemen that all was well (it took all of a minute to convince him), we began deflating the balloon. With the landowners permission, we drove the vehicle carefully along the fence line and out to the balloon. His drain field for the house was in the area between us and the road and we wanted to be careful and do as he instructed. As the balloon was deflating I heard my beeper in the van go off and the cell phone start ringing. It was then I noticed two planes circling above. I decided to finish milking the balloon and get it put away before seeing who was calling. Besides, I was having a nice chat with the landowner on the upcoming balloon event we were putting on in the valley starting the very next day. They were especially interested in the night glow and I had invited them to come out and crew to get up close and personal. Their grandchildren who lived next door had come out and were very excited. Another balloon had landed here, although several years ago, and they were all excited it happened again.
At this point, a white suburban with all manner of antennae on it came down the dirt road very quickly. He turned sharply and drove right over the landowners drain field and right up to the basket. Bailing out of the suburban, hesitating (contemplating whether to get out a video camera I later found out) and trotted over to the landowners and passengers who were standing around talking. I was at the top of the balloon getting the bag ready to start packing up and again it struck me that the beeper and cell phone were going crazy. I walked up to the newcomer who was asking what went wrong to my passengers and asking the landowner what damage I had done. My passengers informed him that we had done exactly what I had been briefing them would happen and that we landed gently. The landowner remarked he had given permission and I had landed without incident. This did not seem to thrill the journalist. He turned to me and I believe he exited shortly due to my displeasure on his manners and trespass on private property for no good reason. As I told him, even the fire department and paramedics stopped on the road. Seeing my van so close he assumed something was wrong and said he wanted to "help."
I tried to explain all was normal, we were packing up, and the van and trailer was how we were going to get the balloon back to our shop. We had permission to be here and the landowner showed us how to drive out there without causing any damage and at least we had taken the time to find out! A little disgruntled, the local TV newsman loaded up and headed out. Making our good-byes to the landowners we accepted their assurance they would be out to see us at the glow. The passengers loaded up and we headed out too. As we approached the end of the road, another suburban, again with many antennae, came roaring in. The occupants stopped us for questioning. Where was the crashed balloon? Who got hurt? Why were we leaving? As I explained I was the pilot, no one was hurt and we were heading back to our shop and cars. "Where's the balloon - isn't it damaged?" came their reply and I gave a brief dissertation on the landing, packing up and transport of balloon systems. These TV reporters listened to what I had to say, decided there was no story and headed out. Moments later I passed a third TV station rig on the road. We kept going. Odd though, we had sent a press release on our new rally and couldn't get a single TV station to come out for a press flight!
I picked up my pager to see who'd called. The person watching my children had sent a 911 coded message for me to call her house twice and now her car phone. Several other numbers had also paged with similar message codes. I called the sitter on her car phone. She was on her way in to find us. My three children and her two were all freaked out having just seen a "breaking news story" on the television and seeing the balloon I was flying, reported to have crashed! As I explained to her all was well, I ascertained that the planes circling above were with one of the local news channels, had filmed my approach to land and deflation and then had cut the tape to appear that I had crashed. Upon reassuring them, I quickly called my husband at work to let him know what was going on before he freaked thinking the same. Luckily he hadn't heard yet but shortly after a fellow employee chased him down to let him know I had an accident. Boy was I glad to get to him first.
Upon realizing the severity of the report, I handed my cell phone to my passengers, a mother and daughter who thought this was quite strange. Weren't balloons safe? Why was everyone reacting this way? What was so different in their flight from others? As I tried to explain it was simply an overreaction, I asked them to call anyone close to them that might have seen the report and be worried about them. Then I did the same with the crew. Several cell phone calls later, I dropped the crew and passengers off at our breakfast location and assured them I would be back shortly to join them after making sure all was okay and notifying my family and crew that nothing had happened. I had no idea what I was in for.
By this time my mind was racing. I had sent the emergency workers away. What if the student pilot flying had had an emergency and needed help. What if I had sent that help away? I tried several times on the radio we gave them to reach someone. By now they were down so long they should be back. What could I have done? I headed back for the shop to use the phone. I wanted to call the station that reported the crash immediately and have them report correctly that there was no accident, at least I hoped. My beeper and cell phone were still going crazy.
The messages had been pouring in. The balloon community is a small one and when something happens, word gets around fast. Many balloonists and extended crew families had called to see if everything was ok. The organizers for the event I had going the next day were getting calls. Unsafe balloons - are we sure we want them here? I had passengers who had prepaid gift certificates calling and wanting their money back already. One of the many I refunded stated simply, "With the crash last week down south and now this, even if it wasn't real, my mom is just too scared to go now." What can you say? My first call was to the TV station. I told them I was the pilot, all was normal and ok. Would they please report that on one of their upcoming news breaks? No. No one was hurt, it was no longer a big enough story to warrant their talking about it again. I tried to explain all the turmoil they had caused. Sorry, they probably reported too soon but it was no longer newsworthy and they wouldn't comment on it.
My next call was to the FAA. We have a great relationship here and I didn't want them being dragged into this. Our normal airworthiness person was on vacation. I left a message with the accident safety specialist who I worked with as an accident prevention counselor. Then came the call to the balloon's owner who was livid. His balloon on TV as crashing and no retraction? He was going to make some calls too. Soon the balloon community was in full swing. Balloonists called everyone they knew to call the TV station and demand a retraction. The balloon owner threatened a lawsuit and damages for all the revenue he was going to lose over the life of his balloon since no one would want to ride in a balloon that crashed. On the advice of my lawyer we also called and threatened a suit. The TV station's phone was going crazy. After 50 or so calls, they finally agreed to air a retraction at 11 AM. It was only 9 AM, still Thursday morning. Busy day.
As I left to pickup my customers and crew from breakfast I saw the student pilot and crew in the field behind the shop setting up her balloon. I walked out to talk to her quickly and let her know what was happening. Before I could explain a thing she sighed and said that someone had called 911 on her and she was on the news crashing according to one of her crew's wives who had loaded up their frightened children and headed down to find them. Turns out, completely by coincidence, her chase vehicle and mine were both blue and gray. Both balloons were darker in color. However, it was me that had been pictured on the news, I got the report with emergency services. When the student pilot had come in for her landing, the field appeared flat from the air. On landing it turned out it was sloped a bit and without the aid of her crew close she ripped out. As she skidded down the hill, her balloon deflated over some blackberry bushes and a worried landowner watching had dialed 911. Instead of emergency services going to her location, TV stations too, they all went after me because I was still in the air at the time and it was easier to find me! What if she really had needed them?!
On further discussion, turns out she called the TV station too and "confessed" to being the crashed pilot. Bet they were pretty confused now. I told her I had also "confessed" not only to the TV station but to the FAA! All the reports listed the address where I landed! Dashing back to pickup my passengers and trying to explain all that happened they couldn't believe it. What a great story to tell their friends! Everyone was ok so wasn't it ok for them to tell everybody?! What are you supposed to say to that? They thought it was neat they were on TV not once, but now to be twice! And they were off. Telling what kind of tale I'll never know.
As the student pilot checked over her balloon for any damage from the blackberries I headed in to make sure someone got the retraction on tape. There were still many calls to return. All who asked for a refund were refunded. I don't want passengers who are scared to death. With some quick phone calls the upcoming rally was still on. No word from the FAA, hope that means something good. Four hours later I finished with the last of the messages, panic and worries. For several days I received random phone calls asking about my crash. The cell phone calls equated to around $50 and my cancelled rides around $1000. Expensive for a pseudo crash.
The woman who had been watching my children was still livid. She called the TV station and insisted on talking to the head news person who's call it was to make on whether something was important enough to break in on local programming. As she told him, they were going to make it right with the adults by doing a retraction, although it was after everyone headed for work and didn't get the message to the masses we had hoped, but what about the kids? What about the children who had to see one of their parents supposedly "crashed" on TV? He tried to play it down but when it came down to it, she insisted they either get those kids a ride in the station's helicopter or plane, or, at the very least, get them a tour of the station. One week later she took all the kids up for a personal tour of the station by none other than the newsman who had made the bad call. They were given all manor of paraphernalia to take home, whistles and whatnots. At least that was something.
When things settled down a few days later I sat down to watch the retraction. The plane had a shot from above that showed nothing but green grass with the balloon deflating next to the chase vehicle. However, their commentary was along the lines of "the balloon flew much closer to houses than usual and a local landowner panicked and dialed 911. It was a normal landing, no one was injured, just closer to houses than usual." Houses? What houses? The footage didn't even show a house in the shot. And with the circle of the plane it was a wide shot! Thank goodness they couldn't get the powerlines in the shot or it would have been too close to them! The call from the FAA came after our airworthiness inspector returned from vacation. He wanted to know what happened. Getting the short version I was talked to about the mind set of the media in light of recent accidents and the reason we have to be so careful now. Acknowledging this to be the case I couldn't help but wonder how I could be more careful. Maybe fly on days when the wind isn't so light I can't call for permission to the landowners on approach. Then the emergency guys would have had a harder time catching me or I would have landed before they got there. Yea, more careful. Guess that's what I'll have to be. But I'm not watching channel four for a while.
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