CCTV claimed that a Chinese man who drifted away in a hydrogen balloon while gathering pine nuts was rescued after being lost in the bush for nearly two days.
CCTV reports that Hu Yongxu and his coworker were collecting pine nuts in China’s Heilongjiang province when they lost control of their hydrogen balloon and “soared uncontrolled.” While the other man was able to jump off the balloon, Hu was left behind as it drifted for more than 186 miles.
Images and videos circulating on the Chinese social media platform Weibo depicted a white balloon floating above a dense pine forest.
In one CCTV video, a man is heard exclaiming, “It went up! One of them came down, but the balloon flew away!”
According to the news source, local officials were made aware of Hu’s predicament, and some 40 individuals were deployed for the initial rescue operation. The next morning, police were able to contact Hu by phone and advised him on how to deflate the balloon to aid it fall.
CCTV revealed that despite Hu’s safe landing in the forest, rescuers had to continue searching for him as his phone’s location service was unable to locate his specific location.
The next day, almost 500 individuals from local police and fire agencies were dispatched to search for Hu. He was ultimately discovered with slight waist injuries.
According to SCMP, Hu was adrift in the balloon for eight hours and lost in the woods for forty hours.
This is not the first occurrence of its like to occur in China.
Jimu News stated that in August of 2017, a guy in the province of Jilin was harvesting nuts in a hydrogen balloon when it was blown away by severe winds. He floated for more than 30 miles before deflating the balloon and being rescued.
According to Jimu News, two additional villagers from Hesheng village in the same province drifted away while gathering nuts in September 2019 but successfully landed.
Despite the hazard, in China the use of highly combustible hydrogen balloons remains the primary method for harvesting nuts.
According to CCTV, another nut-picker with the surname Lu from Heilongjiang province told Red Star News that a hydrogen balloon is “the ideal alternative” because it is “more safer and more efficient than climbing trees.”
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