{"id":491046,"date":"2026-06-23T05:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T05:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/491046\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T05:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T05:49:09","slug":"hot-air-balloon-makes-unexpected-landing-near-lake-hayes-estate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/491046\/","title":{"rendered":"Hot air balloon makes unexpected landing near Lake Hayes Estate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">McLallan said he \u201ccould have flown for another hour\u201d but made the call to land in a nearby flat patch. <\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI could\u2019ve flown to 10,000ft and gone for another hour,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cBut another [landing] spot may be another half an hour away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Chief pilot Carrick McLallan landed safely near Lake Hayes Estate. Photo \/ Elle McCammon\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Chief pilot Carrick McLallan landed safely near Lake Hayes Estate. Photo \/ Elle McCammon<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">McLallan said all group members were happy and had landed safely.<\/p>\n<p>Hot air balloon crashes in Methven<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">It comes just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/emergency-services-respond-to-hot-air-balloon-crash-in-methven\/HDRPKWNG5VHVZIDZAG47PA6FFA\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/emergency-services-respond-to-hot-air-balloon-crash-in-methven\/HDRPKWNG5VHVZIDZAG47PA6FFA\/\">days after a hot air balloon crashed in Methven<\/a> when it became caught in trees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">Corey Masters was on his way to work when the crash occurred, leaving two people with minor injuries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">Masters had stopped to snap a picture of the hot air balloons, which are in the town for the Fire &amp; Ice Hot Air Balloon Glow and Laser Festival on Sunday, when he noticed one start to descend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">He recalled seeing a man in the basket attempt to give it gas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt was too late to go up, and then it just came crashing down,\u201d Masters said.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"The hot air balloons were a part of the Fire &amp; Ice Hot Air Balloon Glow and Laser Festival being held in Methven.\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>The hot air balloons were a part of the Fire &amp; Ice Hot Air Balloon Glow and Laser Festival being held in Methven.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">He jumped out of his car and was one of the first on the scene.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThis lady came running past me, and she\u2019s like, \u2018I\u2019m an off-service ambo.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cShe just handed me her phone, and it was already on 111 and I talked to them and got them to come over.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">Masters initially thought just one person had been in the basket, unaware that two others were crouched down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI didn\u2019t realise two people were sitting down in it. They were a bit older, they must have fallen down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt was pretty quick. A lot of people were there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of volunteers in our town, so they quickly rushed some around, and it was cold, so they got them into cars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">Fire and Emergency New Zealand shift manager Blair Walklin said crews responded to a call shortly after 8am on Fri.<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cOn arrival, one hot air balloon has come down on the road and crews are assisting on scene near removing the hot air balloon from the road that got caught up in some trees.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"KYZkfFLMYZDtBgBwd\" style=\"display:none\">Nobody needed to be freed from the basket after it came down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLallan said he \u201ccould have flown for another hour\u201d but made the call to land in a nearby&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[68,83328,8604,4509,7816,638,305,32666,51584,2514,13207,19720,15028,5338,3180,111,43,139,69,4499,1240,2951,30645,41656,18980],"class_list":["post-491046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-air","tag-balloon","tag-caused","tag-cold","tag-dense","tag-estate","tag-have","tag-hayes","tag-hot","tag-island","tag-lake","tag-land","tag-landing","tag-makes","tag-near","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-small","tag-south","tag-town","tag-unexpected","tag-unexpectedly","tag-winds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}