\n\t\t\t\t\t\t A hot air balloon crashed into the side of Sky River Casino on Monday afternoon during a groundbreaking event, and ballooning experts say the incident underscores how critical weather judgment and pilot decision-making are in the industry.Exclusive aerial video from LiveCopter 3 showed the balloon\u2019s basket slam into the casino building and tip to nearly a 90-degree angle, with the pilot still inside. The balloon was later seen in a nearby field.Witness Kevin Mallett said he first saw the balloon while at Elk Grove Park with his family and did not realize anything was wrong.\u201cWe didn\u2019t think anything was wrong, and it was a normal, unusual sight to see a hot air balloon in the first place in Elk Grove,\u201d Mallett said.Mallett said he only later understood the seriousness of the situation after seeing news coverage.\u201cWe had no idea the hot air balloon was in distress,\u201d he said.See a timeline of the incident below. Tim Nelson, chief pilot at Sky Drifters in Rancho Murieta, said one of the biggest concerns is that the balloon was in the air around midday, when conditions, he says, can become less predictable.\u201cYou\u2019ll never see one of our balloons up at noon,\u201d Nelson said.Nelson said his company canceled its own flights Monday because of what he described as unstable weather conditions. He said balloon operators must be prepared to keep flights grounded when conditions are questionable.\u201cYou\u2019ve got to have your radar on because a gust can come up, and what a lot of people think is just wind might include lift, which is trying to lift that balloon off the ground,\u201d Nelson said.He said hot air balloons are generally flown around sunrise or sunset, when winds are calmer and more predictable.\u201cOnce the day heats up, you get air mixing and doing strange things,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cNothing good happens in a balloon at noon.\u201dNelson said incidents like this can also hurt balloon operators across the region.\u201cThis kind of stuff has an effect on us, and it\u2019s hard to see, particularly in one\u2019s own backyard,\u201d he said.Commercial pilot Tristan MacLean said ballooning has a strong safety record overall because pilots undergo extensive training and recurrent review.\u201cWe have to perform ground school clarification to make sure that we still stay up to date on airspaces, regulations, and any changes that could have happened,\u201d MacLean said. \u201cAnd when we are in training, we go through a tremendous amount of standards that have been created over the years.\u201dA spokesperson for Sky River Casino said the pilot chose to launch into free flight because of unexpected heavy winds.The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are expected to investigate. MacLean said those agencies will bring in experienced personnel, including ballooning experts, to determine what happened.\u201cThey have plenty of experienced people that are involved from all around the country, and they have also brought in hot air balloon pilots to make sure that they get a full scope of what happened,\u201d MacLean said.KCRA 3 is still working to identify the pilot, whose identity had not yet been confirmed.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tELK GROVE, Calif. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
A hot air balloon crashed into the side of Sky River Casino<\/a> on Monday afternoon during a groundbreaking event, and ballooning experts say the incident underscores how critical weather judgment and pilot decision-making are in the industry.<\/p>\n Exclusive aerial video from LiveCopter 3 <\/a>showed the balloon\u2019s basket slam into the casino building and tip to nearly a 90-degree angle, with the pilot still inside. The balloon was later seen in a nearby field.<\/p>\n Witness Kevin Mallett said he first saw the balloon while at Elk Grove Park with his family and did not realize anything was wrong.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t think anything was wrong, and it was a normal, unusual sight to see a hot air balloon in the first place in Elk Grove,\u201d Mallett said.<\/p>\n Mallett said he only later understood the seriousness of the situation after seeing news coverage.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had no idea the hot air balloon was in distress,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n See a timeline of the incident below. <\/p>\n Tim Nelson, chief pilot at Sky Drifters in Rancho Murieta, said one of the biggest concerns is that the balloon was in the air around midday, when conditions, he says, can become less predictable.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll never see one of our balloons up at noon,\u201d Nelson said.<\/p>\n Nelson said his company canceled its own flights Monday because of what he described as unstable weather conditions. He said balloon operators must be prepared to keep flights grounded when conditions are questionable.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got to have your radar on because a gust can come up, and what a lot of people think is just wind might include lift, which is trying to lift that balloon off the ground,\u201d Nelson said.<\/p>\n He said hot air balloons are generally flown around sunrise or sunset, when winds are calmer and more predictable.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce the day heats up, you get air mixing and doing strange things,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cNothing good happens in a balloon at noon.\u201d<\/p>\n Nelson said incidents like this can also hurt balloon operators across the region.<\/p>\n \u201cThis kind of stuff has an effect on us, and it\u2019s hard to see, particularly in one\u2019s own backyard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Commercial pilot Tristan MacLean said ballooning has a strong safety record overall because pilots undergo extensive training and recurrent review.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to perform ground school clarification to make sure that we still stay up to date on airspaces, regulations, and any changes that could have happened,\u201d MacLean said. \u201cAnd when we are in training, we go through a tremendous amount of standards that have been created over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Sky River Casino said the pilot chose to launch into free flight because of unexpected heavy winds.<\/p>\n The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are expected to investigate. MacLean said those agencies will bring in experienced personnel, including ballooning experts, to determine what happened.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have plenty of experienced people that are involved from all around the country, and they have also brought in hot air balloon pilots to make sure that they get a full scope of what happened,\u201d MacLean said.<\/p>\n KCRA 3 is still working to identify the pilot, whose identity had not yet been confirmed.<\/p>\n See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | Download our app<\/a> | Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A hot air balloon crashed into the side of Sky River Casino on Monday afternoon during a groundbreaking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[263215,265366,265362,265363,4,450,75171,265367,265365,23507,22208,451,265357,265358,10072,6270,265364,3,84968,147054,3590,265359,265047,265048,470,265360,452,453,265361,33409],"class_list":["post-610979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-andres-valle","tag-balloon-operator","tag-balloon-pilot","tag-ballooning-expert","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-elk-grove","tag-exclusive-aerial-video","tag-extensive-training","tag-faa","tag-flight","tag-headlines","tag-hot-air-balloon","tag-hot-air-balloon-crash","tag-incident","tag-investigation","tag-maclean","tag-news","tag-noon","tag-ntsb","tag-people","tag-sky-drifters","tag-sky-river-casino","tag-sky-river-casino-building","tag-t","tag-tim-nelson","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-tristan-maclean","tag-wind"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}