What a mess:

http://avherald.com/h?article=4e13e8d1

 

Incredible that the balloon wasn't noticed by airport staff...the amount of debris on the Airbus implies to me anyway, that the balloon would have been quite large. Good thing the plane had already landed. Also at least I now know what a pyro balloon is. 

Saw that report the other day. It looked to me like the aeroplane's condition was similar to when you get covered in the streamers from a party popper - messy, and annoying to tidy up, but not really life threatening - although obviously an aeroplane accidentally hitting some sort of inadvertent aerial piñata is not a good thing and may not always have such harmless consequences.

I presume the authorities would have the good sense to go after the plonkers who have flown one of these pyro balloons where I would hope the rules are that you are not supposed to.

Yesterday I read the local news about this. Looks like it's not a pyrotechnic balloon (first time I've ever seen this term, either in English or Spanish), but a simple 5-meter hot-air balloon, like the ones used for advertising, and that should be tethered to something on the ground. Now I have two questions: Who did allow this balloon to be anchored in a park located less than 1 NM left of the glideslope for runway 13L? How did it end up untethered and crossing the runway?

9 hours ago, Luis Hernandez said:

Yesterday I read the local news about this. Looks like it's not a pyrotechnic balloon (first time I've ever seen this term, either in English or Spanish), but a simple 5-meter hot-air balloon, like the ones used for advertising, and that should be tethered to something on the ground. Now I have two questions: Who did allow this balloon to be anchored in a park located less than 1 NM left of the glideslope for runway 13L? How did it end up untethered and crossing the runway?

Yes the early report says it was, I had never heard of a Pyrotec Balloon, or this one either, different customs in Bogota. What I do know is in some countries at the stroke of midnight the amount of fireworks that go off are unbelievable, here is Naples at the strike of midnight, seeing this makes it clear why you would have a hard time controlling people when the locals have gone this far to celebrate:

 

Edited January 5, 20215 yr by Matthew Kane

16 hours ago, Luis Hernandez said:

Now I have two questions: Who did allow this balloon to be anchored in a park located less than 1 NM left of the glideslope for runway 13L? How did it end up untethered and crossing the runway?

Not the first time such a thing has occurred...

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/pink-floyd-giant-pig-breaks-free-animals-water-gilmour-mason-wright/

Loved that Pink Floyd story, Chock!

On 1/5/2021 at 2:50 PM, Matthew Kane said:

What I do know is in some countries at the stroke of midnight the amount of fireworks that go off are unbelievable,

You are lucky it's just fireworks.  Where I live it's gunfire.  It seems every gun owning household spends 30 minutes shooting every gun they own into the air for 30 minutes or so.  It's not really safe to go outside.  This year for the first time I heard at least two automatic weapons fire.  Yes, they are illegal to own but what's that got to with anything?

Noel

24 minutes ago, birdguy said:

I heard at least two automatic weapons fire.  Yes, they are illegal to own but what's that got to with anything?

Could they not have bump stocks (or are they illegal in your state/any state?), or could the users have a very fast trigger fingers? Are auto weapons legal with the correct paperwork perhaps?

Then again firing into the air is a no-no isn't it? I'd have thought even with the most liberal (by that I mean free and easy, not anti firearm..) restrictions one would still have to shoot at a target (which could of course mean a felon if you had to defend yourself, your family and your property), rather than blindly firing upwards. 

Mind you, what do I know? Where I'm from, automatic weapons have been banned from 1937 or so!  Just wanting to learn. 🍻

Automatic weapons have been banned for about that long here too.  But you can own one if you get a Federal license which is hard to get and you have to have a compelling reason to own one.

A friend of mine here has a coin shop and deals in precious metals.  He has quite an inventory in his safe.  He has a license to own one but there are severe restrictions.  He is allowed to take it to the range and fire it and must have the license in his possession when he is out there.  He took me out there to fire it one day several years ago.

I could have more to say on this subject but it would be considered political and thread would be locked.

Noel 

On 1/10/2021 at 7:04 AM, birdguy said:

You are lucky it's just fireworks.  Where I live it's gunfire.  It seems every gun owning household spends 30 minutes shooting every gun they own into the air for 30 minutes or so.  It's not really safe to go outside.  This year for the first time I heard at least two automatic weapons fire.  Yes, they are illegal to own but what's that got to with anything?

Noel

I remember years ago when I lived in Toronto their was a guy that shot and killed three people on fireworks night, he did it on that night knowing people won't call the police because a gunshot gets unnoticed during the fireworks. At  the time I lived on Queen Street West in the city and I worked as an engineer up in an industrial park just north of the city. So what happened was three bodies were found in the morning after the sun came up because no one heard the gunshots or noticed anything in the night. One body was dumped in the alleyway behind my apartment behind the bank, another body was dumped behind my workplace just a few business' over in a dumpster, and another one dumped on the other side of the city. When that happened it all felt way too close to home for me. A few weeks went by and the police did arrest someone and he was convicted for all three of these murders. I remember the day he was arrested I was on my way home from work and I stopped at the barbershop I used to go to which was half way between my work and home. While I was in there the barbers commented that the shooter they arrested was a regular customer as well. Again another thing that was too close to home for me. Turns out the guy lived not far from me and worked in the same area as I did so this was why it happened close to my usual patterns as well. Ever since that year I always think about that night and how easy it was for him be to  get away with those shootings when the gunshots are not noticed and people don't call 911, I live in New Zealand now so not a concern for me anymore, but many cities do see a spike in shootings every time they have a firework night. 

For the past 30 odd years I have spent New Year's Eve in my basement. There are simply too many idiots who like to rapid fire their weapons into the air, few of whom use blanks of course!

Do they think their bullets are going to go into low earth orbit? Sheesh!

Three years ago a 13 year old boy was killed by one of these non-orbiting bullets falling to ground.