Hot air balloon crash lands on Melbourne apartment rooftop, no one injured

Hot air balloon was on its maiden ride over Melbourne

Dramatic visuals taken from inside a hot air balloon captured the moments leading to its crash landing on an apartment rooftop in Melbourne on Wednesday morning.

In the video filmed by passenger Jayde Magookin, others can be seen crouching in the basket as the balloon passes through roofs and trees before making a noisy descent through the branches.

The balloon, on its maiden ride over the city,  draped over two rooftops. The basket landed in the yard and car park after the emergency descent with 12 people on board.

Emergency services were called to an Elwood property, with Fire Rescue Victoria’s high angle rescue technicians brought in to remove the deflated balloon.

No one was reported to be injured in the incident.

Pilot Nick Brau, who is the director of Liberty Balloon Flights, said that the balloon, though brand new, would not fly properly. It flew for about half an hour before he started struggling to get in the air properly.

Shaken by his first crash in 27 years as hot air balloon pilot, Mr Brau said that he was not sure what went wrong. “The valve that releases hot air from the top, which we use to manoeuvre the balloon, didn’t seal properly,” he told radio 3AW.

“So I was losing a lot of heat and it was difficult to keep the balloon up in the air so that’s why I was flying low and I was aiming for the beach but we didn’t make it for about 200 metres.”

The matter will be probed by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

Mr Magookin, 34, told BBC he felt there was something wrong with their ride after the hot air balloon, part of a fleet of six, took a different route than the others. His suspicions came true, as he and others felts the balloon “skimming tops of trees” and “narrowly missing power lines”.

Recovering from a recent heart attack, Mr Magookin told the outlet, that though the crash was “terrifying”, he could laugh with others now as he responded with an enthusiastic “yes” about flying in another hot air balloon again.