Virgin hot air balloon lands at Joseph Rowntree School

A bright red Virgin balloon landed on the grass outside Joseph Rowntree secondary school in New Earswick at about 8am today (July 15) as pupils and staff looked on.

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One eye witness, who didn't want to be named, said: "Thankfully they managed to land it safely - no one seemed to be injured and there was no need for emergency services.

"It was completely unexpected - it was about 8.30am so there were plenty of people around."

Joseph Rowntree School head, Dave Hewitt, said: "The landing of a hot air balloon in the school grounds made for an exciting and unexpected start to the week.

"Members of staff supported the balloon company to help them collect their equipment shortly after landing. After the initial excitement, we started the school day as normal with no disruption to the arrival of students and members of staff."

A Virgin Balloon Flights spokesperson said: "It was a safe landing and was cause for much excitement at the local school.

"We had many happy passengers who didn’t want the experience to end.

"The flight took off from York Racecourse just before 7am and proceeded to land safely at Rowntree School just after 8am.

"The school were delightful to deal with and we retrieved our equipment after a short wait to confirm a health and safety check as standard.

"Everyone on the flight had a wonderful time and were shuttled back to the launch site to enjoy their customary bubbly toast."

Meanwhile a second Virgin balloon landed at about 7.50am at Heworth Cricket Club, narrowly missing homes.

The Virgin balloon between homes in Heworth (Image: Supplied)

One resident in Lawn Way, who didn't want to be named, said: "It's quite an exciting thing to happen, but it's not so exciting when it's over your house.

"It was incredibly  low and I reckon we heard about five or six very loud gas filling noises in quick succession which was what  prompted me to run outside. I ran round the corner to get a photo after it had just landed. 

"Scary stuff."

On this occasion Virgin Balloon Flights said: "This was a safe landing, and no hedge or fence was disturbed during this manoeuvre. Ten happy passengers disembarked their flight after landing and proceeded to enjoy their prosecco toast."

The balloon at Heworth Cricket Club (Image: Supplied) Meanwhile a third balloon, a Yorkshire Balloon Flights multi-coloured balloon piloted by owner Oliver Webb, came down in a field of horses near Windmill Lane in Badger Hill in York at about 7.25am today.

The Windmill Lane hot air balloon (Image: Supplied) Mr Webb, who has been flying balloons since 2009, said that there was nothing out of the ordinary about all three of the landings.

"We're not like aeroplanes, we don't have specific times and targets for landing. Today the wind was fairly light," he said.

"We tend to take off from the racecourse and usually there is enough wind to take us out to the surrounding countryside. Today we had to be creative."

Mr Webb said that because of the wet weather his company is about 50 per cent down on flights compared with where they should be at the halfway point in the season.

"We are hopeful that for the latter part of the season things are going to get a lot better weatherwise and we hope to be in the skies a lot more in the near future."