Over the rainbow

Some truly sad news from my neighborhood: one of the two AirVentures hot air balloons shown in my earlier post landed and burst into flames last night, in a field a few miles from my house. I'm not sure which of the two was involved, but I know it was one of them because we saw them aloft over the neighborhood about 15 minutes beforehand. Melrose and I were coming home from an errand when she spotted them some distance away. As we came closer and drove down our street, the blue one with the butterflies was just a little ahead of us, off to the left. We lost sight of it as we got to the house. Little did we know what would happen just a few minutes later.

The pilot of the balloon, Earl MacPherson of New Jersey, was killed and the seven passengers sustained burns and were hospitalized. All are expected to survive. At least one passenger may have been saved because MacPherson was standing between her and the fire. My heart, thoughts, and prayers go out to his family, friends, and fellow pilots; to the passengers aboard last night; to the owner and employees of AirVentures; and to the homeowners and witnesses who were part of the aftermath and undoubtedly traumatized by the experience. I've seen Mr. MacPherson several times preparing for launch and climbing aboard the balloons, and always marveled at the careful and professional efficiency of the balloon crews in rolling out and inflating these gigantic things.

I'm also grieving because these beautiful creations are, in a way, our balloons. They launched and landed in and around our neighborhood and in-season we'd see them most evenings as we headed home. The blue balloon Butterfly has been flying for a few years with a checkerboard companion, and the green balloon Gracie was new this year, replacing the checkerboard one. They usually flew as a pair. My kids and I have watched them take off many times and are familiar with their usual trajectory. No matter how used we are to seeing them, we are invariably thrilled when we spot them. One of them, we will never see again. The other is probably grounded for the time being.

Although I'm hoping for the best, I worry about what will happen to AirVentures. First of all, the loss of a pilot is devastating. Add to that the loss of costly equipment and a season's revenue, and the time needed for an investigation, etc. I truly hope they can continue their business, which has made our county an even more beautiful place. For the meantime, I guess, there will be no magical hot air balloons drifting over our corner of Chester County. The sight of these colorful and enchanting spheres soaring overhead brought us untold pleasure, and they, along with their pilot, will be missed by many. Adults and children alike.

We decided not to tell the kids (ages 2 and 4) what had happened, and distracted them when it showed up on the local news during breakfast. As Magoo and I drove to school this morning, he asked, completely randomly, "Mommy, we see the doggie balloon today?" (Gracie, the green balloon, has a pattern of flowers and a brown and white dog).

"No, sweetie, there won't be any more balloons for awhile."

"Are they sleeping?"

"Yes, sweetie. They're sleeping."

And I wish with all my heart they could wake up today.

UPDATE:

This story is getting picked up by national news media. If AOL counts as such. Oddly, the AOL piece has more details on what caused the fire than the Philly-area stories published this morning. Unlike earlier reports that said it caught fire and crashed, they're now saying it landed and then caught fire.