Weather thwarts chair balloon flight

A petrol station owner and an Iraqi adventurer trying to fly from Oregon to Montana in tandem lawn chairs suspended from party balloons, made a hard landing after having to abort their flight due to thunderstorms.

Kent Couch and Fareed Lafta were about seven hours into their flight when they were forced to descend, coming down near a reservoir about 30 miles (48km) east of their starting point.

But after they scrambled out of the contraption, it floated up again, flight organiser Mark Knowles said. He said the balloonists were pelted by hail and snow and buffeted by turbulence before reaching the ground uninjured. “They came down hard. The craft went back up. It’s sitting up in the sky right above us.”