A Chinese man has been rescued after spending two days trapped aloft in a hydrogen balloon after it became untethered from a tree and floated away. The balloon ended up drifting over 300 kilometres before he was able to descend.
Why was he tied to a tree in a big balloon? He was using it to harvest pine nuts.
The man was only identified by his surname, Hu, by Chinese state media. He and a colleague were picking pine nuts on Sunday in a forest in Heilongjiang province in northeastern China when they lost control of the balloon.
Hu’s partner was able to jump to the ground before the balloon sailed away but Hu was not so lucky.
A rescue effort was launched to find the missing man and state broadcaster CCTV said that authorities were able to call Hu on his cellphone the following morning to help him. Rescuers instructed Hu to slowly deflate the balloon so he could land safely.
A day later, at around 9 a.m. local time on Tuesday, a rescue team made up of more than 500 people from local police and fire departments was able to track Hu’s location by tracing his phone signal, the state-run Global Times reported. He had drifted more than 300 kilometres away from where he started and gotten stuck in a tree on his way down.
Hu had ended up in the Fangzheng region of China, close to the Russian border.
“I almost gave up,” Hu told CCTV. “Thanks to the rescuers, otherwise, I wouldn’t be alive.”
Hu was found in good health but was suffering from lower back pain, possibly from standing the whole time he was trapped in the balloon, CCTV reported. He also told interviewers that he was cold and hungry during the two-day ordeal.
An official who gave only his surname, Fu, at the publicity department of the Hailin Forestry Administration Co. on Thursday confirmed the balloon incident and described Hu as being in his 40s. He said Hu was recovering in a hospital but declined to give further details.
Pine nuts are found inside pine cones and are a frequent ingredient in dishes served in the northeast of China.
It’s not uncommon to see hydrogen or helium balloons used to harvest pine nuts in China, and in recent years, news of other pickers being swept away have been reported.
In 2019, two men picking pine cones in the Changbai mountains reportedly drifted 10 kilometres after losing control of their balloon. They landed safely and were arrested for breaking aviation regulations, CNN reported.
In 2017, a nut picker went missing near the border between China and North Korea after his balloon floated away.
Before using balloons became more common in recent years, nut pickers traditionally wore spiked shoes to climb trees for harvesting. Pine trees can grow about 20 metres and falls would sometimes be fatal.
— with files from The Associated Press