Hot air balloon lands in San Diego neighborhood

A hot air balloon pilot landed in a residential San Diego neighborhood Wednesday evening.

San Diego City Councilman Mark Kersey took video as the balloon glided over trees and houses and settled in a parking lot.

“Hot air balloon just crash landed in my neighborhood,” Kersey wrote on Twitter. “Pilot did a nice job of putting it down in a parking lot and just missing the houses.”

Photos taken after the landing show the balloon beginning to deflate. No one was injured.

Jennifer Estlund, a spokeswoman for the San Diego Police Department, said officers weren’t called to the scene because the pilot didn’t actually crash land.

“When a hot air balloon makes a perfect standup landing, it is not an emergency landing. Even when they drag a bit, it is not a problem either,” she said. “I have been in the basket several times myself with multiple pilots who chose to make safe landings just like that. I am sure if you talked to the pilot, they would have stated it was a safe landing option.”

Kersey wrote on Twitter that is was the second time in a year that a hot air balloon made a landing in the area.

Last April, a hot air balloon went down in the Rancho Peñasquitos neighborhood of San Diego, NBC San Diego reported. No one was hurt in that incident either.

source: nbcnews.com