Update: Seven On Hot Air Balloon That Hit Power Line

Feb 1, 2019 | 3:10 PM

UPDATE

The Transportation Safety Board will be investigating after a hot air balloon with seven people on board, collided with a power lines south of Armstrong.

The balloon was in the air as part of the Vernon Winter Carnival Hot Air Balloon Festival.

RCMP Constable Kelly Brett says the incident happened along Highway 97A around 10 Friday morning.

“Initial stages of the investigation show that the balloon may have encountered an updraft from wind that forced the balloon to strike a rock face of a hill just adjacent to the highway causing it then to collide with power lines,” says Brett.

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Brett says police have made contact with the pilot and the six passengers on board at the time of the incident.

“No injuries have been reported to the RCMP, and no obvious signs of damage to the power lines, however BC hydro has been notified,” adds Brett.

Winter Carnival chairperson Deb White says the balloon was destroyed in the incident.

She says the pilot is from B.C. but she didn’t know other details.

Beach Radio News has reached out for comment from the North Okanagan Hot Air Balloon Society.

11 am

The Hot Air Balloon Festival got off to a rocky start on day one of Vernon Winter Carnival.

A balloon crashed into a power line near the area of the Tolko log yard in Spallumcheen.

Police, ambulance and fire have been at the scene.

Carnival chair Deb White confirms the pilot did hit a power line in that area.

“No one is hurt. His envelope (balloon) is ruined. He’s trying to find another envelope so he can get back up in the air, but he has to have a logbook with the envelope so he’s trying to find that out now,” White tells Beach Radio News.

White says the balloon took off from the lot across from Home Depot in Vernon and ended up in Armstrong.

“His runner (truck that follows the balloons) said this is one of the longest runs they’ve ever had,” says White, noting the direction of the flights are dictated by the wind.

White did not immediately know where the pilot is from.

Photo courtesy of Jay Barnes

by Corey Fischer