Friday the 13th at Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Fiesta

Key Grab day always falls on a Friday at the Albuquerque International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. This year, 2006, it fell on Friday the 13th, which might have had something to do with the contents of this video.

Various hot air balloon pilots attempt to grab envelopes full of either certain amounts of money ($2,000, $4,000, $10,000, $25,000) or a 2007 Honda Ridgeline, sometimes with humorous results. This is some pretty entertaining stuff to watch, and I caught as much of it as possible on video from my vantage point on the target field.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• hot
• air
• balloons
• dvd
• albuquerque
• international
• ballooning
• fiesta
• 2006
• key
• grab
• competition
• crash
• new
• mexico

[HotAirTV]

There is no way to "steer" a balloon except climbing and descending to pick up different wind directions at different altitudes. Balloons drift whichever direction the wind takes them. Competitions such as these challenge pilots to seek out the proper wind directions that will get them to the target.

[maskedrider1009]

We were chasing at that time. Didn't see it happen but it's really scary when you hear the news report on the radio and you're out chasing & trying to follow your balloon.

[tinman3804]

Wow. There clippin along pretty good...

[SaddeningEmoChild]

hi everyone, just to let you know, at .36 the red blue and yellow balloon is Bruce Wood, My father, i'm actully in the balloon with him at the time.

[realestatewebdesign]

cool event....great video of it

[koreachinajapan]

I've never seen and ridden hot air ballon. so, I really wish to ride it.

[sbmrunning]

saw it on cnn today!

[B3ATKING]

:) i live over here in Bernalillo New Mexico, which is a few miles from Albuquerque. all the balloons fly over my house every year :). they are bad ass, but today one crashed into power lines a few miles from my house and we heard the sound all the way from my house. the basket and the balloon separated and the balloon part stayed flying for miles and miles... on fire. one person died :( and the other one was injured badly.

[acastillo999]

haha! This is soo awesome. My mom and dad would love to see these wonderful balloons. :]

[greenhawk46]

nice job on this video

[dmbucsfan]

just a little info for everyone at 1:47 the pilot with the red blue and yellow balloon behind the guy grabbing for the pole his name is Sam Edwards also at 3:46 the pilot with the red blue and white balloon with the arrows pointing up and down that is johnny petrehn. I know most of you dont care but I thought I would put that out there for people who want to know