[imagesource: ABC News]

What you’re looking at in the image above is a deflated hot air balloon draped over apartment rooftops in a Melbourne street.

The hot air balloon was on its maiden flight with 13 people on board, including the operator, when it suddenly had to make an emergency crash landing.

This particular balloon was part of a fleet of six, with the other five balloons having landed safely at Moorabbin, reported ABC News.

Nobody was injured as the basket seemed to protect the passengers well enough.

Watch the moment unfold in this video doing the rounds on Twitter:

Incredible passenger-shot vision of this morning’s hot air balloon crash in Melbourne has been released, showing the shocking moment the balloon came down over Elwood. #9News pic.twitter.com/wG1Ft5n2Ov

— 9News Melbourne (@9NewsMelb) April 20, 2022

Fire Rescue moved in swiftly to remove the deflated balloon:

Image: ABC News: Sarah Jane Bell

Here’s Karen Marriage, who booked a spot to celebrate her daughter’s 18th birthday:

Ms Marriage said the balloon had trouble maintaining altitude and began clipping the tops of trees and buildings during the journey.

“We did some damage to some tops of buildings. It was sort of occurring to us that something might have been wrong at that point,” she said.

Nick Brau, the chief pilot for Liberty Balloon Flights, said that the cause of the problem was because one of the valves on the top of the balloon malfunctioned:

When he realised something was wrong, Mr Brau said he steered away from the bunch of other hot air balloons that were flying over Melbourne. He tried to fly to Elwood beach, but could not make the distance, so Mr Brau landed the balloon in the unit block’s car park.

“At that moment there’s a lot of adrenaline and you’re concentrated, I just did what you’re trained to do,” Mr Brau said. “It’s a bit embarrassing because the balloon is draping over a building, but at least we put everybody safely on the ground.”

With 27 years of hot air balloon pilot experience, this is Brau’s first crash, which one local resident likened to a ” UFO at your window”.

Quite the moment for everyone involved.

[source:abcnews]