A man who spent two days aloft in a hydrogen balloon, travelling about 200 miles, has been found safe, Chinese state media reported. He lost control of his hydrogen balloon while harvesting pine nuts after it became untethered and flew away. The man has been identified only by his surname, Hu.
Hu and a colleague were collecting pine nuts on Sunday in a forest park in Heilongjiang province in northeastern China when the incident happened. While the other person jumped to safety, Hu drifted away. Thankfully, the rescuers were able to reach him on his cellphone and ordered him to slowly deflate the balloon to reach the ground.
The process took whole other day before he reached to safety about 200 miles to the northeast in Fangzheng region, close to the border with Russia. A rescue team of more than 500 people comprising the local police and fire departments spotted his balloon stuck in a tree, state-run Global Times reported on Wednesday.
“I almost gave up. Thanks to the rescuers, otherwise, I wouldn’t be alive,” Hu told the Chinese state-run broadcaster CCTV.
Video footage from multiple Chinese media outlets showed a pale balloon bobbing in the sky over pine forests.
Hu has sustained only minor injuries to his waist, which are probably the result of standing for too long. He is recuperating in a hospital. (WION)
