Two months after the fatal death of a well-known balloonist, a hot air balloon manned by two people crashed into trees in Ryegate on Sunday morning. No one was injured, but the crash is under investigation by federal authorities, according to Vermont State Police.
Operator Keith Sproul, 62, of North Brunswick, New Jersey, and passenger Olivia Miller, 20, of Tewksbury, Massachusetts, were evaluated by EMS and were not injured, police said.
The pair departed from Post Mills Airport and were flying near Farquharson Drive in Ryegate at 8:30 a.m. when Sproul tried to “slow the balloon by brushing the tops of trees,” the report stated.
The impact on the treetops reportedly pushed Sproul forward from the two-person bench seat making him unable to control the balloon. He talked Miller through to a landing in the trees, which damaged the balloon.
This incident follows the July 15 fatal accident of well-known Vermont balloonist Brian Boland, 72, who traveled over a mile underneath the balloon’s basket before falling to his death outside a private home on Waits River Road in Bradford.
Boland and his four passengers flew northeast along the Connecticut River before the pilot light in the burner went out, causing the balloon to rapidly descend. Boland relit the burner but could not get the balloon to climb before hitting a field, throwing one passenger and Boland from the basket, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report.
The passengers survived, but Boland fell under the basket and hung there, his foot trapped between the balloon attach rope and the basket frame, before falling to his death over a field near the Connecticut River, the report said.
The July crash was deemed an accident by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Both balloons took off from Post Mills Airport, which Boland had owned.
The Federal Aviation Administration and NTSB are investigating this latest crash, state police said in the report.
