Videos: Hot air balloon crash-landing narrowly misses N3 in KZN

A hot air balloon pilot put his 25 years of experience to the test this morning as he skillfully navigated an emergency landing, narrowly avoiding the N3 by Camperdown.

In a video going viral on social media, the hot air balloon can be seen flying low and slowly over the freeway and hitting a tree, which brings the balloon towering down, just after it has safely crossed over the N3.

The video shows dramatic footage of the balloon deflating in slow-motion and falling down over the road near the Camperdown Police Station.

In the video, a man’s voice can be heard saying “it collapsed in front of my house”.

ALS Paramedics confirmed no injuries were sustained.

However, owner and pilot of Hot Air Ballooning SA, Tala Valley, Warwick Cook, said today was a normal flying day, and the landing was planned, including the use of trees as “brakes”.

“When we’re flying, we have to find nice places to land. But powerlines and what looked like bush and a stream prevented landing before the highway.

“It’s a normal to use trees, we call them our AVS breaking system,” Cook said.

He was touring seven passengers, two of which were 70-year-olds. The tour was a part of a birthday celebration and before taking off, they were taken through a safety briefing.

Part of this briefing included teaching them how to ready for landing.

“It was procedure for them to get to the bottom of the basket and hold onto the handles. The baskets of air balloons are built to be inherently safe,” he said.

Cook said the balloon deflated like it should and everything went well.

After the landing, the birthday goers were given sugary drinks.

Cook’s skillful landing of the air balloon has been met with praise in Facebook comments.

Cathleen de Bruin commented: “That did not look like a crash, he actually landed very well for an unplanned landing.”

Criag Viljoen commented: “Brilliant pilot, well done. Absolutely magic and awesome.”