UP IN THE AIR

2 Hot Air Balloon Passengers Saved in Dramatic Mid-Air Rescue

Law enforcement called it the “Super Bowl of rope rescues.”

Rescuers pulled off a dramatic rescue of two people after a hot-air balloon collision left the pair hanging nearly a thousand feet up in the air.

“This is not an everyday rescue,” Lt. Stephen Winchell told reporters at a press conference following the high-stakes operation. The rescue lasted nearly four hours and required 14 specialists on the tower to safely extricate the fliers.

The saga began when rescuers learned that a man and a woman were flying 920 feet in the air after a hot air balloon crashed into a cell phone tower in Gregg County in East Texas.

Rescuers were immediately dispatched at 8:15 a.m. Saturday morning, where they learned they were about to face the “Super Bowl of rope rescues,” according to Winchell, who helped helm the operation.

All that was keeping the fliers from plummeting to their deaths was a section of the rainbow hot air balloon tangled up in the tower’s architecture. Making the predicament even more terrifying was the balloon’s wild swaying, which complicated the already demanding rescue.

By 8:50 a.m., climbers were sent up the cell phone tower “using multiple rope systems.” In an elaborate process, rescuers built a “high-point anchor” to swing the pair out of the basket. The man and woman were both secured within the tower by 10:58 a.m.

Then followed a risky 2-hour descent down the tower’s height, watched by many in the community who set up launch chairs to witness the daring escape.

“We not only had to get up, extricate the patients out of the basket of the balloon, into the tower, “but then hand them off, rope by rope, down the multiple pitches, or sections, down the tower,” Winchell said of the operation.

The pair didn’t report any injuries and were sent to the hospital following their rescue.

“Climbing 1,000 feet up, 1,000 feet down, for some of them, with a bunch of heavy gear and rope, is a very physically taxing event. I’m thankful for their sweat-equity, and the Lord being with us,” Winchell said.

And for their death-defying efforts, rescuers received free pizza.

“After a long day on rope, this was an amazing surprise waiting for us back at the station. Never expected, but always appreciated,” the Fire Department posted on Facebook.

The hot air balloon is set to be removed by a local construction company, which will bring down the basket and propane tank.

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