A bunch of people dropped in for a visit at Hunter and Jenna Perrin’s house on the morning of Saturday, April 18.
Let’s just say the Perrins were not expecting guests.
In fact, it was 8:30 a.m. Jenna was doing yoga and Hunter was watching TV when he got a notice on his phone that their backyard camera had detected movement. Then someone rang their doorbell. When Hunter answered, the man at the door said, “A balloon landed in your backyard.”
“I said, ‘I don’t know what you mean,’ ” Hunter Perrin recalled. “I thought he meant a kids’ party balloon.
“But no, he said: ‘A hot air balloon.’ “
In the flat, grassy part of the backyard of their Temecula home sat a basket filled with 13 smiling, cheering people, attached to a giant hot air balloon. It had landed safely, missing the trees, the roof — everything — and thanks to the steady hand of the pilot, made an emergency landing as the basket floated down safely.
“You don’t really think of your backyard as a place where people can literally fall out of the sky,” Hunter Perrin said on Sunday, April 19. “I feel like it is kind of unreal.”
Yes, the town is famous for its hot air balloon rides, gorgeous valleys and clear skies. And the Perrins didn’t know they were near the flight path in the few years they’ve been living in their single-family, detached home with a sloping backyard in south Temecula.
But now they do.
When he saw the people still in the basket, Hunter froze, then decided to get his phone and grab a photo.
“I was thinking this is so unusual, I need to get a picture,” Hunter said. His wife went into the kitchen and offered the drop-ins some water.
Apparently, the wind died down at the wrong time. When the pilot knew he couldn’t reach the landing spot, he steered it into the Perrins’ backyard. Like a golfer reaching the flat fairway and avoiding bunkers, he avoided the steep slopes and other obstacles and landed the balloon on the flat patch of backyard grass.
“Have you ever been where you did not think what was happening, is happening?” Hunter Perrin asked. “I didn’t think this thing was possible.”
He said no one was hurt.
After someone radioed for fuel, it powered the balloon so it could be flown out of the yard around 100 feet high, then onto the street. From there, the passengers were transported in vans back to their cars. The balloon and basket were folded up and put in a large trailer for transport, Hunter Perrin said.
On Sunday, he was happy to have a normal, uneventful day.
“No more excitement,” Hunter Perrin said.