Drama as hot air balloon lands at school (From The Oxford Times)

Drama as hot air balloon lands at school

3:13pm Tuesday 16th June 2009 in News By Ellie Simmonds

IT WAS meant to be a quiet ballooning trip to admire the beauty of Oxford’s dreaming spires.

What the pilot and his passenger did not expect was a close-up view of the front of an Oxford primary school.

But that was exactly what the occupants were faced with when they were forced to make an emergency landing after the wind suddenly dropped on Sunday evening.

Dozens of youngsters and their parents ran into the road to see the balloon touch down on the front lawn of Headington’s Windmill Primary School.

Caroline Shannon, of Mark Road, Headington, said she was called to the scene by her husband — but initially thought he was joking.

Mrs Shannon, the school’s business manager, said: “He said he thought the balloon was in trouble and it was really low.

'It was just luck that nobody was hurt. It was an amazing sight to see'

Caroline Shannon

“He said he thought it was coming down.

”He said ‘It is in the school, you had better bring your keys, quick’.”

The black and white balloon landed at about 8.30pm and was believed to have left Botley earlier in the evening for a sightseeing trip over Oxford’s famous dreaming spires.

Mrs Shannon added: “The road was packed. People were everywhere.

“The pilot said he had come from Botley and it had been a really nice flight.

“He realised the wind was going down and he was in trouble so he thought he would aim for our playing field.

“He knew as he was coming down he wasn’t going to make that and just clipped the school chimney.

“One fence slat came out of the fence around our pond.

“He landed just one side of the railings — otherwise he would have been in the houses.

“He landed just in front of the trees.

“It caused much excitement in the road.”

Mrs Shannon said the balloon landed about a road’s width from houses opposite the Margaret Road school.

She said: “It must have been quite scary for the pilot and his passenger.

“ It was just luck that nobody was hurt. It was an amazing sight to see.”

Ellie Evans, also of Headington, said: “It was flying very low then eventually landed in the school grounds.

“I heard the burners of the balloon and took some pictures from the loft window of our house.

“Another balloon was seen near Old Road flying low and seemed to land at the Churchill Hospital.

”I don’t know if it was the weather conditions, but they did not seem to be gaining height.”

A spokesman for the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust said they had no reports of a balloon landing on the site — and said if one had it must have taken off again almost immediately.