Runaway Balloons

This interesting but sad article was published in ‘The Times’ on 22nd September 1917.

Runaway anti-aircraft balloons are not usually associated with the Great War, but they were an everyday presence in the London skyline during the later part of the war.

Two Airmen Killed

Four Balloons Break Loose Over London

The breaking away of a balloon from its moorings in the outskirts of London yesterday led to two deaths. The wind was strong and gusty, and the runaway balloon turned over and threw out the occupant of the observation car, a Royal Flying Corps officer. He was killed, the body being picked up shortly afterwards.

The cables of this balloon appear to have become entangled with those of other captive balloons, which were up at the time and tore three of them away. Apparently only one of these balloons carried an observer.

Loosely connected by their entangled cables, the four balloons travelled away in the breeze, and it was noticed that the observer had failed to get clear by using his parachute and was hanging amidst the wires. About 1 o’clock the four balloons passed over South Norwood and the observer fell from a height of 2,000 feet into a field on South Norwood Hill. He was killed instantly. The body was removed to the mortuary at Croydon. The runaway balloons now carried no other human freight and were shot down by anti-aircraft guns.