Two injured in hot air balloon crash were ‘not in correct landing position’

The balloon missed its landing zone, bounced around 30 ft into the air and landed in a ditch in Deighton, at around 5.30pm on September 13 last year.

Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) found that two passengers on board were injured “possibly because they did not maintain their briefed and demonstrated landing position”.

One suffered a serious neck injury and the other sustained a minor injury, after they had been on a 50-minute flight over York.

The other 12 passengers and the experienced pilot, who has not been named, escaped without suffering any injuries.

According to investigators, the pilot was unable to slow the descent of the balloon when he was coming into land on a windy day and realised he was not going to reach the field he was aiming for.

In its report, the AAIB stated: “It was difficult for the pilot to instruct the passengers to adopt their landing positions due to the noise.

“Having realised that ground contact short of his planned field was unavoidable, the pilot gave the landing instructions to the passengers.

“The balloon touched down heavily, before bouncing and coming to rest in a ditch.”

It added: "Two of the passengers were injured, possibly due to not being in the correct landing position throughout the sequence.”

Eleven years ago, a hot-air balloon with 17 passengers on board crashed into an 11,000 volt power line in North Yorkshire.

No one was hurt in the crash, which happened north of Keasden near Bentham.