Balloon pilots react to hot air balloon crashing into Sky River Casino building in Elk Grove

A hot air balloon crashed into the side of Sky River Casino on Monday afternoon during a groundbreaking event, and ballooning experts say the incident underscores how critical weather judgment and pilot decision-making are in the industry. Exclusive aerial video from LiveCopter 3 showed the balloon’s basket slam into the casino building and tip to nearly a 90-degree angle, with the pilot still inside. The balloon was later seen in a nearby field.

Witness Kevin Mallett said he first saw the balloon while at Elk Grove Park with his family and did not realize anything was wrong. “We didn’t think anything was wrong, and it was a normal, unusual sight to see a hot air balloon in the first place in Elk Grove,” Mallett said. Mallett said he only later understood the seriousness of the situation after seeing news coverage. “We had no idea the hot air balloon was in distress,” he said.

Tim Nelson, chief pilot at Sky Drifters in Rancho Murieta, said one of the biggest concerns is that the balloon was in the air around midday, when conditions, he says, can become less predictable. “You’ll never see one of our balloons up at noon,” Nelson said. Nelson said his company canceled its own flights Monday because of what he described as unstable weather conditions. He said balloon operators must be prepared to keep flights grounded when conditions are questionable. “You’ve got to have your radar on because a gust can come up, and what a lot of people think is just wind might include lift, which is trying to lift that balloon off the ground,” Nelson said. He said hot air balloons are generally flown around sunrise or sunset, when winds are calmer and more predictable. “Once the day heats up, you get air mixing and doing strange things,” Nelson said. “Nothing good happens in a balloon at noon.”

Nelson said incidents like this can also hurt balloon operators across the region. “This kind of stuff has an effect on us, and it’s hard to see, particularly in one’s own backyard,” he said.

Commercial pilot Tristan MacLean said ballooning has a strong safety record overall because pilots undergo extensive training and recurrent review. “We have to perform ground school clarification to make sure that we still stay up to date on airspaces, regulations, and any changes that could have happened,” MacLean said. “And when we are in training, we go through a tremendous amount of standards that have been created over the years.”

A spokesperson for Sky River Casino said the pilot chose to launch into free flight because of unexpected heavy winds. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are expected to investigate. MacLean said those agencies will bring in experienced personnel, including ballooning experts, to determine what happened. “They have plenty of experienced people that are involved from all around the country, and they have also brought in hot air balloon pilots to make sure that they get a full scope of what happened,” MacLean said.

KCRA 3 is still working to identify the pilot, whose identity had not yet been confirmed.