Kerry Hot air Balloon lands in Central Park, NY

[dr.strangelove]

NEW YORK Oct 29, 2004 — Two men were taken into custody Friday after illegally landing a hot-air balloon emblazoned with the names Kerry and Edwards in Central Park, police said.

Police said the men had permission to fly the balloon, but not to land it the park.

It was not immediately clear if they had any connection to the campaign.

Thomas Robins, 44, and Ronald DiGiovanni, 51, brought down the balloon in the middle of the afternoon, police said. The men said they were in distress and had been cleared to land by air traffic controllers a claim police disputed.


http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=209748

[Robbie67]

1. HAHAHAHAH

That's a great stunt! :bounce:

[dr.strangelove]

2. Its been flying around NY all day

I can't believe it ran out of gas though.
We need this stuf in PA and Ohio, not NY. Though it will get play in NJ and help to make sure that bush gets spanked there.

[Robbie67]

6. The balloon landing in Central Park will get press

it may not mean much, but it's all good

[steely]

3. THAT is Excellent

Can't wait to see a pic!

[HerbieHeadhunter]

4. From having been in a few balloons myself...

I can say that you don't exactly have too much control where you are going down...and the balloons have air space priority over other craft.

I hope somebody has a photo...it ought to be pretty good.

[n2mark]

11. Agree

I've been on a hot air balloon crew, there is not a lot of control. I remember landing on cactus, on the side of mountains and in mud. Not only does the propane control but the wind and temps.

This is not like landing an airplane folks.

[Massacure]

5. Can Air Traffic Control give permission to land in Central Park?

[dr.strangelove]

7. Don't know

I would think any emergency landing post 9/11 would need to be called in so that it is not seen as an attack. I would call it in to let them know it is an emergency and not an attempt to kill people. They may have misspoke about the permission. We'll see.

[Rjnerd]

8. You declare an emergency,

Then look for something vaguely flat. Choice is basically yours, but NTSB will investigate, and if it was a false alarm, you are not going to be PIC anytime soon.

[karlrschneider]

9. Um, NTSB won't investigate it, there was no "crash"...the FAA will though.

And generally NTSB doesn't get involved unless there are fatalities. I've had 3 "crashes" over my 11,000+ hours and never had any involvement with them. But nobody was killed or injured.

[Javaman]

10. So a large slow moving vehicle that can be spotted miles away...

Landed in the middle of Manhattan, nice to know that our homeland security are hard at work. HARD WORK!!(flying spittle!), Tom Ridge, asscroft, and other ass chickens once again are sound asleep. Good thing this was just for fun and not some terrorist group. Gotta just love the repukes, if it wasn't for them, I just don't know what I would do for entertainment. fucktards.

[dr.strangelove]

12. Their flight plan arounf the island was cleared.

The news reports indicate both pilots were cleared to fly. The landing was not clear though.