Two hot air balloons collided Sunday morning, seriously injuring two men aboard one of them when it crashed into a rice paddy in Kanzaki, Saga Prefecture.
According to officials in the Saga Prefectural Police and the Saga Balloon Pilot Association, the balloon carrying company employees Shugo Shimazaki 44, and Yuichiro Matsuo, 48, took off from Yoshinogari Historical Park at about 7:30 a.m. and was still ascending about 3 km southwest of the park when it hit the basket of another balloon that was moving west at 20 kph.
Shimazaki suffered a broken leg while Matsuo sustained a fractured hip.
The balloons were participating in the Yoshinogari Winter Balloon Fiesta, and the two men were in a competition to drop a sandbag on a precise ground target. The incident happened near the target, and a judge called the emergency services.
At a news conference following the accident, Kazuaki Sasagawa, chairman of the balloon association, said winds were "blowing differently at different altitudes" and that may have made it impossible for the two balloons to take appropriate action in time to avert the collision.
Hideo Shinohara, a 54-year-old company employee who lives several hundred meters from the site, said hot air balloons have become a familiar sight in the area, but "I want the target set in a location away from residential areas."
