THE pilot of a balloon which crashed into power-lines at Bordon in April did all he could to save his passengers in the last moments before the inevitable crash, according to an official report. The pilot and his 10 passengers were lucky to escape injury when the balloon, owned by Toucan Travel of Basing-stoke, hit power cables above Station Road before crash landing in a field behind a trading estate on Easter Sunday. The incident, which took place on Sunday, April 16, at around 7-15 pm, triggered a safety device which shut off a 132,000-volt electricity pylon, disrupting power to thousands of homes in the area and leaving others without any electricity. An Air Accident Investig-ation Branch report, which has been published, says that the balloon was running low on fuel and the pilot had already made a number of landing attempts before the crash. The sites on which he had attempted to land had proved unusable. Oakhanger resident Adrian Marsh filmed the balloon flying low over his home before rising again and heading in the direction of Bordon. Soon after, Mr Marsh experienced a short power cut and saw an ambulance and fire engine heading towards the town. The report continued: "He (the pilot) considered that the opportunities for finding suitable landing sites were becoming fewer and, being aware that he was using reserve fuel, would have felt under a degree of pressure to land the balloon without much further delay." It says that the balloon hit a tree first and then the power-lines as the 49-year-old pilot, who had more than 800 hours flying experience, fought to land safely. The balloon was damaged, but the passengers all escaped from the ordeal unhurt, the report found. Describing the last moments before the balloon came into contact with the power lines, the report notes that in the last stages of the flight the pilot was not confident the basket (carrying the passengers) would clear the power lines and took an immediate decision to descend. It added: "By this stage, the pilot was clearly aware that the balloon would contact the power lines, so he took the action to use the 'Q-vent' rapid deflation control. "Although use of this control in the air was normally prohibited, the pilot was complying with the guidance in the manufacturer's flight manual to 'land as soon as possible' if contact with power lines was unavoidable. Once the pilot had committed to reversing the vertical direction of the balloon, contact with the power lines was inevitable. "However, his actions to bring the basket down as rapidly as possible may have saved the basket, or its metal support wires, from contacting the power lines, thus reducing the risk to the basket and its occupants." Fifty homes in the Herriard, Bentworth, Lasham, Western Corbett, Tunworth and Ellisfield areas were left without power after the incident and a further 70,000 experienced a dip in power. The Air Accidents Investig-ation Branch, part of the Department of Transport, is responsible for investigation of civil aircraft accidents.
