The whole of Balloon Fiesta Park was in shock and awe when this happened.
I lived in Albuquerque when that happened and I was there the day that
happened!
It was pretty intense and scary! I remember when they had announced that the
kids and the pilot where ok.
The whole park cheered! It was intense!
The surface winds when Smokey hit the tower were no more than 15-18knots. I
was the pilot of the very first balloon you see in that clip (Intel
Centrino). It was a typical box morning with higher winds heading north and
surface winds heading south. That's the reason why a number of balloons took
off, and landed, in Fiesta Park. For those who missed landing in the park,
there are few landing options to the south at those speeds, without going
all the way to the south of Sunport airport.
I flew that day and had a stand up landing, 2 blocks away, 30 minutes prior.
We watched the whole thing. The crash is an obvious pilot error, can't blame
the weather. The ignorant "American this, American that" comments add
nothing to the discussion, but do show the intelligence and maturity of the
poster. The decision to climb down the tower as quickly as possible was a
good one, because the stability of the tower was at risk. The 80 MPH is such
an exaggeration, it is laughable.
