remember the Smokey Bear balloon i took a pic of?

well, he made big news today...

with headlines like Balloon Gets Caught In Radio Tower [koat tv] and Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta ending with a bang: "Smokey the Bear" balloon is wrapped around the top of a 670ft AM radio tower, four people in gondola [fark]...
and someone in the fark thread mentioned it was even on cnn...

behold...



i ALMOST saw it happen... i was recording the mass ascension coverage on tv this morning and popping downstairs once in a while to see if there was anything worth taking pics of... last trip i had made down, i saw smokey and almost took a pic since he was in a good spot, but, i have not been taking many pics since we went to the event, not much chance of topping those... anyway, so, i then came back upstairs... within a minute or two they were talking about it on tv... i bet i missed it by 30 seconds...

by the time i ran out there, all i saw was this...

the reports are still coming in, but, it is now confirmed that there were three people aboard, all ok, they were able to get out of the gondola to the ladder that runs inside it and climb down... it took nearly an hour... there was the 70-year-old pilot, and two passengers on their first balloon ride ever... they were 14 and 10 years old... he sent them down the ladder first...

here is the pilot climbing down the tower, and here he is after they got him in a cherry picker, as he and a rescue worker look up at the tattered remnants of the balloon...

of course, the big question now is how they are going to get that thing down from there...


garth's informal predictions at America's Outback didn't include radio towers, but, turns out he was right about the power lines...
Balloon catches on live power line, no one injured
Balloon Fiesta Pilot Trips Up With Power Line


other headlines the last few days have included...
Balloon Fiesta Brings Injuries, Power Outage
Rough landings, snagged balloons mark morning
Pilots Injured As Balloon Makes Hard Landing Near Chama
Gas balloon makes hard landing, injures pilots

here is a google news search if you want to see more...


and the whole 10-day event has also been well blogged...

America's Outback has great pics from the day 7 special shapes mass ascension...

mr. bohnsack posted many pics from the day 9 mass ascension with links to over 400 high-res pics from the three previous years... he also links a few other abq bloggers posting about the aibf... (including me; plus, i fit his comment about those with "freshly purchased digital marvels"...)

and Quirky Burque even gave us the Balloon Fiesta Avoidance Plan...


i am probably not going to keep up with posting all the follow up news and/or blog posts about it all, but, i will definitely get pics and vids again next year, and post 'em all here...


there are a few pics and one vid from the last few days that i did not comment on, and now that it is all done, the vids will stay for a while until we need the space, so, take one last trip to the now completed AIBF collection...