Hot air balloon crashes into high voltage cables trapping three teenagers for 5 hours

Three teenagers are lucky to be alive after they were trapped for five hours in their hot air balloon after it wrapped itself around high voltage power cables.

Pilot Adam Griffiths, 18, and his two passengers, a man and a woman, suffered minor burns when they crashed into a Northamptonshire electricity pylon, absorbing its 132,000 volts of energy.

They were left suspended 15 metres above the ground from 6pm until 11pm last night as they waited for the overhead cables to be turned off.

The balloon's canopy tied itself around the power cables in the small village of Bozeat, near Wellingborough in what balloonists described as 'a freak accident.'

Mr Griffiths, who owns the Greyhound Balloon Team, based in Rushden, Northamptonshire, was out flying with five other balloons from the Chiltern Region Balloons and Airship club when the accident happened. Read More