Lawn Chair Balloonists Recount Harrowing Flight Over Oregon
Two men flying matching lawn chairs suspended by helium-filled party balloons over central Oregon last weekend said Tuesday they were floating along peacefully at 14,000 feet (4,300 meters) when thunderstorms grabbed control of their homemade craft like a giant hand.
“It was so nice, so beautiful, so peaceful,” for the first three hours of the flight, said Iraqi adventurer Fareed Lafta, who joined lawn chair ballooning veteran Kent Couch in an attempt to fly from Couch’s gas station in Bend, Oregon, to Montana as a warm-up for a future flight over Iraq. “I remember I can hear the cow when they moo, the dogs. Everything was so peaceful and so nice.
“Then we were in this thunderstorm.”
Couch said it was like some giant hand grabbed hold of their craft.
“It felt like a wind just raced up and grabbed the balloons and just squeezed them,” said Couch. “Ten of them popped at one time. It sounded like a string of firecrackers being let off. I would say that’s probably where we felt threatened.”
Normally, shooting out one or two balloons would cause them to drop, but they were still ascending — fast. When they started to fall, they dropped ballast, but kept falling.