A six-year-old’s birthday balloon nearly took out a paraglider when the helium-filled foil balloon became entangled in his gear mid-flight. A popular video online shows the moment the large, pink “6” balloon got sucked up into Michael Giblin’s rig.
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Giblin overlaid text on his video, which he posted to Instagram, explaining that at first, he tried reaching for the balloon, but he couldn’t quite get to it. Then, the wind forced the balloon close to his propeller (he was using a paramotor). That’s when Giblin knew he needed to get to the ground as soon as possible.
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“Bumped into a birthday balloon as I flew into the Sunset,” Giblin wrote in his video’s caption.
“What are the odds of that happening?” wrote one person in the comments section, which is what we’re all thinking.
“Glad you’re okay mate, being taken out by a balloon would have been a bad way to go,” wrote another person. Giblin replied, saying: “If the fall didn’t kill me, the embarrassment probably would.”
Watch what happened when a birthday balloon got tangled up with a paraglider, forcing an emergency landing:
Header stock image by Stephan Langhans / 500px/Getty Images
