Hot air balloon makes emergency landing in Grafton commuter rail lot

A hot air balloon full of people made an emergency landing in the parking lot of the Grafton commuter rail stop Tuesday morning, police said.

The balloon touched down in the lot around 8:40 a.m.,dinging threecars, according to police. Six people were on theballoon at the time.No one was injured.

Derald Young of Dixfield, Maine was piloting the balloon, owned and operated by Dixfield’sDamn Yankee Balloons, police said. He was trying to land in the nearby Tufts campus, which is about 1,000 yards southeast of the Grafton lot.

Tricky winds blew the balloon off course, knocking it into an overhead wire between two light support poles. The pole, a light and a wire fell over, police said.

“The wind conditions this morning changed,” Youngtold The Grafton News. “The directions changed almost constantly. Balloons cannot go left or right at all. You have to land straight ahead.”

He wasn’t worried when his basket approached the MBTA lot, he told The News.

“I’ve done this too long to get nervous,” Young reportedly said.

Young was also piloting a balloon that crashed in Clinton last year,slamming into power linesand injuring several passengers.