The Daily Populous Monday April 20th, 2026 evening edition
Authored by irishstar.com and submitted by IrishStarUS

Homeowner stunned as hot air balloon carrying 13 makes emergency landing in backyard

Residents of a quiet California neighborhood could hardly believe their eyes when a hot air balloon carrying 13 people made an emergency landing in a backyard

View 2 Images The hot air balloon pilot managed to successfully land in the backyard without damaging anything or injuring anyone (Image: ABC)

Shocking video footage captured the moment a hot air balloon made an emergency landing in a California backyard.

The stunning incident took place in Riverside County on Saturday. A Temecula homeowner was casually watching television around 8:30 am, when a neighbor knocked on the door, letting him know that something unexpected had just landed at his back door.

"I go and answer the door. This guy's like, 'They just landed in your backyard!!!'" Hunter Perrin told Eyewitness News. "And I'm like, 'What!?'"

Perrin and his wife Jenna could hardly believe their eyes when they opened the door and saw a hot air balloon, carrying 13 people, sitting in their backyard.

"I open the sliding glass door, and there's a basket full of thirteen people in my backyard!" Perrin said. "The pilot, he was masterful. He got it right down inside, like directly into the backyard, where there was nothing. The balloon didn't catch on anything. No one was injured."

The Perrins told Eyewitness News that the hot air balloon pilot told them the wind died, forcing him to make an emergency landing.

Miraculously, there was no damage in the backyard and no one was injured. Videos of the incident show the hot air balloon sitting comfortably on the grass.

View 2 Images One passenger said that the pilot made an announcement and told them there was not enough wind, and he only had a little bit of fuel left (Image: ABC)

"You can kind of see in the video of how they came in. He kind of plopped straight down and was moving very slowly," Perrin said.

"And I run to the backyard, and there's a whole group of people that are just waving at me," Jenna said. "And I'm like, 'Oh my God. So the sound I heard was the flames?!' And I'm like... hi!'"

Eyewitness News also spoke to one of the passengers on board the hot air balloon, who described the moment they realized they were going to have to make an emergency landing.

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She said the pilot made an announcement to the 13 passengers, including herself and her husband who were taking the ride to celebrate their 10th anniversary.

"He said there's not enough wind, because the wind kind of like, stopped a little bit. And he was like, 'We're going to land.' And we only had a little bit of fuel left," Avalos said.

She recounted her response to landing in the Perrin’s garden, saying, "At first I was like, 'Oh my God! We're in a backyard! This is crazy!'"

"He was trying to get us to the street, but we couldn't get to the street in time, so we landed in the people's backyard safe and sound, like no one's hurt, everyone's great. He was an amazing pilot!" Avalos said.

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SothaSoul on April 20th, 2026 at 18:44 UTC »

Kudos to the pilot. Heck of a landing.

course_you_do on April 20th, 2026 at 17:52 UTC »

Isn't it traditional for them to carry a bottle of wine or champagne to give to the property owner where they end up touching down? I have this fact somewhere in my brain but it might not be true.

BarnabyWoods on April 20th, 2026 at 15:46 UTC »

I don't know much about balloons, but it sure seems like the pilot screwed up here. Don't they carry ballast that they can shed when they need to gain altitude rapidly?