Louisville Hot Air Balloon Blows Away! Kentucky Derby 2009

The Great Balloon Race of 2009, held at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center. Kentucky Derby Festival event. During strong winds, the University of Louisville balloon is swept away, narrowly missing a passenger airplane!

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Louisville
• Kentucky
• Derby
• Festival
• Hot
• Air
• Balloon
• university
• of
• Fair
• and
• exposition
• center
• amazing

[dmbucsfan]

wow that would be really scary i cant imagine how the pilot kept his cool but props to him for doing so

[musikkimies]

Very cool video Nathan. Great job. It made us miss Louisville.

I need some YouTube pointers from you. I haven't been able to tweek the format of our camcorder to let us upload. I will have to keep working on it.

Jon

[Chick6517]

I was having such a horrible day and after watching this video, it totally helped bringing up my spirits. Thanks for posting!

[bdshanfan14]

The winds were strong enough to put the entire event in doubt and, as everyone has mentioned, the race was held near the airport.

[karichelle1982]

The airport is right next to the Fair & Expo Center, where this event was held...that plane was nearly to the runway and thus, very low. Tragedy certainly averted by having some luck on their side.

[remoteviewer7]

Good video! Captures the mood of the event. I bet that guy in the ditch got his $6 worth of parking!!! Kentucky Fair & Exposition Center can't you afford a 12 foot guard rail over that 8 foot steep drop off?? Those kids could have been crushed. With the millions you take in on parking fees (according to the Courier-Journal) why not do something besides invest in computerized parking gates? Parking used to be free, now you pay $6 to park in mud or dirt with a 10 min walk through heavy traffic.

[indylre]

Starting at 4:05 in this video you can see an incredible scene from the Kentucky Derby Festival Great Baloon Glow on Friday evening in Louisville, KY. John Belski of WAVE-TV had an eyewitness account of this posted on his blog. I am told that the pilot landed safely about 10 minutes later

[indylre]

winds were very strong and several pilots apparently did not want to do the glow at all, and the plane was much lower to the ground than what the video appears as it was less than 1/2 mile from landing.

[ryry5760]

1. winds 10 mph at least. gusting up to about 17- 20 by the end of the night.

2. the passenger plane shouldn't even have to worry about a balloon in the air on his final approach after sunset.

3. know a lot about balloons.

[capal1]

1. No sign of strong winds

2. No where near the passenger airplane.

Know anything about balloons?????