Bad behavior on airline flights has been making lots of headlines in recent years, but this might be the first time a belligerent passenger on a hot air ballon has made the news. When Cleto Criado del Rey quit his corporate job to pursue his passion hot air balloon piloting, he could not have predicted an absurd situation like this one. It played out in the skies above Nepal, when he had to physically restrain a renegade skydiver who was about to put his and his passengers’ lives at risk.
Cleto was on a routine flight above a rural area near Pokhara in central Nepal when one of his passengers removed his jacket, revealing a hidden parachute underneath. The man was planning on jumping off while it was ascending but Cleto shut him down, grabbing him by his parachute rig and letting him know that what he was planning on doing was not going to happen. The man continued to plead with the pilot but he stood his ground, safely landing the ballon and booting the man and his friends out of the basket (more on that later).
What the man did not know and Cleto was well aware of, were the risks of losing a significant amount of weight while a hot air ballon is on ascent. The sudden and dramatic weight shift could cause the ballon to gain altitude rapidly, possibly resulting in an ascent rate higher than the limit of the ballon. This can cause the ballon to deflate and collapse, expelling all of the hot air at which point recovery would be near impossible and outcome almost certainly catastrophic.
Landing at the first safe opportunity, Cleto touched down and kicked the offending man and his friends out of the basket. He called the police but due to their remote location, the police could not respond. His crew attempted to detain the men but they refused and walked away. The hot air ballon then took off again and was safely landed in a zone where the passengers could be picked up and the ballon retrieved.
Cleto investigated and found the man had tried to book a flight through the hotel he works for, stating his intention of skydiving but was summarily denied as it was strictly prohibited. The man then went to third party agency and withheld his intentions of skydiving and was able to book the flight. To further disguise his plans, the man and his friends took their own transport to the takeoff area, arriving last minute to improve their chances of avoiding detection.
After discovering who booked the flight, Cleto went to the third party agency and was shocked to learn the men had returned to the agency asking for a refund because “the flight had not gone long enough and the flight had not gone high enough.”
Cleto filed reports with the Civil Aviation Authorities of Nepal and the United State Parachuting Association (USPA). Through contacts in the world of aviation and skydiving, Cleto also discovered the man had his skydiving license revoked, so it makes sense “he is trying to do some bandit jumps in a third world country, trying to sneak in and get away with it.”
