Weather balloon from Stanford University crash lands in the MD of Taber

It contained expensive equipment and encountered some difficulties while on route to its planned destination, causing the forced landing.

Kirk Hughes, Director of Community Safety for the M.D. of Taber, said the balloon was in a farmer’s potato field in the Grassy Lake area.

Initially, Peace Officers were dispatched Tuesday night, but could not find the balloon, resulting in the search on Wednesday, when it was found. The Taber/Vauxhall RCMP were also notified.

“We managed to locate a drone operator, a local person in town – he came out with his drone, pin-pointed the weather balloon within about two minutes and we managed to guide Peace Officers through the maze of the fields without damaging any of the crops and we retrieved this very interesting-looking weather balloon,” Hughes told Lethbridge News Now.

Hughes said the Community Peace Officers Program is comprised of about three officers that “have powers from the Solicitor General of Alberta” to enforce different provincial legislation – including everything from the Traffic Safety Act to the Animal Protection Act, as well as municipal bylaws.

They also work alongside the RCMP, fire departments and other services to maintain a safe community.

He noted that officers see their fair share of unusual case files, but this was something he’s never come across in his years of service.

“When you get something like this that comes across your desk, it’s always worth the good investigation to take a look at it,” he said.

“We did contact the RCMP – they do all the federal and provincial jurisdiction stuff as well, but we indicated that we could pick it (the balloon) with the drone and that frees them up to do other work.”

Hughes noted there were no injuries stemming from the incident, as the balloon had the proper pieces to make a safe emergency landing.

“When it experienced difficulties…and the emergency landing took place, it jettisoned all its weight, and upon entry had a parachute, so it floated very gently to the ground.”

The balloon travelled over 2,000 kilometres in 72 hours (Photo courtesy M.D. of Taber Regional Community Peace Officer Program)

As for the cause of the landing, Hughes said data collected from the balloon will determine the exact cause, but he suspected “interesting weather patterns” passing through southern Alberta played a part.

“Anything from potentially strong hail, all the way down to a possible lightning strike, which wouldn’t be the first time in the M.D. of Taber in the last three weeks that we had lightning cause something like that to occur.”

Hughes was referencing a fire at an oil supply facility, which was caused by a late-night lightning strike the night of June 18, 2019.

The weather balloon contained no hazardous materials, according to Hughes. It had travelled over 2,000 kilometres in approximately 72 hours before the emergency landing.

A Facebook post by the Peace Officer Program reporting the incident

Hughes said he believes the balloon was on route to the coast of Newfoundland.

“They did have a spot (where) it should have landed that was closer to Newfoundland than the M.D. of Taber,” he said with a laugh.

“It came out of California, so I think it was going coast to coast on a diagonal jet-stream.”

He said anytime something like this happens, residents who stumble upon an unknown object should contact their local RCMP or police detachment.

Fortunately, in this case, Hughes’ team knew what they were responding to.

“(The) concern was that it was properly dealt with and quickly dealt with – not only for public safety reasons, so that people weren’t afraid of it if they saw it, but of course the data is time-sensitive, so they wanted that information as quick as they could (get it),” he said.

The balloon is being sent back to Stanford University in California.

by Justin Goulet

Weather balloon from Stanford University crash lands in the MD of Taber

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