New season flight safety, UK Powerline strike

I have been flying way too much, which is good I suppose! But has meant a
lack of attention here.

At the beginning of the year I hoped for a safe start to the season in the
Northern Hemisphere and it seems the incidents are starting!

The weather must have improved.

Not that we are immune down here.

Hot-air balloon hits power lines
A hot-air balloon pilot had a lucky escape after becoming entangled in power
lines in Oxfordshire.
The alarm was raised when about 500 homes in the Standlake area, near
Witney, lost power on Sunday evening.

Firefighters assisted electricity board engineers in removing a balloon from
11,000-volt electricity lines at a leisure park, off the A415 Downs Road.

The pilot was able to release himself safely and no one else was injured in
the incident.

Thames Valley Police closed Downs Road for an hour while the balloon was
removed.

A spokesman for Southern Electric said power was restored to homes within
two hours.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/6374671.stm

Time to chuckle at the google ads that will be served now that and incident
is mentioned again.

G