 |
| Flying pig |
The incident took place recently in the town of
Provo, Utah, where locals were celebrating the
anniversary of the Land of the Free* becoming
independent of Britain.
This celebration in Utah traditionally involves the
flying of large numbers of hot air balloons in the
"America's Freedom Festival Balloon Fest". One
of these balloons, sponsored by a local bank,
was shaped as a vast flying pig (in
representation of a piggy bank named "Seymour",
the bank's mascot).
Unfortunately, the basket of a cowboy-themed
balloon ploughed into the top of the flying pig
not long after takeoff, ripping the fabric. Losing
its hot air rapidly, the pig plummeted
Earthwards. However its pilot, named as Erwin
Oertli, was able to maintain some buoyancy by
turning his burners on to full power and bringing
the stricken porker down relatively slowly.
"What saved my bacon, was that the head of the
pig held a lot of hot air and helped the balloon
to descend at a safer rate," Oertli said in a
statement quoted by the AP.
The plunging piggy struck the ground in a
building site, with Oertli suffering minor injuries.
He was the only person riding the pig, and was
treated by paramedics at the scene.
No comments:
Post a Comment