„I photographed it on Thursday evening at 7:30 PM. It looked as if a crash was narrowly avoided,“ – wrote a reader to 15min, who captured the unusual sight near Grigiškės.
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In the photos she sent, you can see how the hot air balloon descends, flies past the road, and then rises higher.
The head of the aeroclub „Audenis“, which owns this hot air balloon, Žydrūnas Kazlauskas, told 15min that this was a completely routine situation. According to him, the photos show the balloon descending after crossing the highway, and the photos were taken „from a hill“.
„It was flying over the light poles and after crossing the road tried to descend into the stadium. The hot air balloon was photographed at the moment of descent. A completely standard situation,“ explained Ž. Kazlauskas.
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„The hot air balloon was descending to a safe altitude – it posed no danger to anyone, it was not very low. The landing moment always involves descending all the way to the ground. How can a balloon land without descending?“ he added.
The pilot of the recorded flight, who refused to identify himself, told the same to 15min. „There could not have been any dangerous situations. The flight was controlled, and at that time the hot air balloon was in the landing phase – descending to land. Right after the highway was the stadium, where I intended to land. The descent was smooth and safe. Upon reaching the stadium, I saw it would be difficult to fit because it was close to the fence, so I took off and flew to look for a landing spot.“
