عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Varieties

Hot-air balloon Strikes, Collapses Radio Tower in Albuquerque During Festival

This image made from a video provided by Curt Fargo shows a radio tower collapsing after a hot-air balloon struck it during the famous festival in Albuquerque, N.M., Oct. 11, 2024. (Curt Fargo via AP)
This image made from a video provided by Curt Fargo shows a radio tower collapsing after a hot-air balloon struck it during the famous festival in Albuquerque, N.M., Oct. 11, 2024. (Curt Fargo via AP)
TT
TT

Hot-air balloon Strikes, Collapses Radio Tower in Albuquerque During Festival

This image made from a video provided by Curt Fargo shows a radio tower collapsing after a hot-air balloon struck it during the famous festival in Albuquerque, N.M., Oct. 11, 2024. (Curt Fargo via AP)
This image made from a video provided by Curt Fargo shows a radio tower collapsing after a hot-air balloon struck it during the famous festival in Albuquerque, N.M., Oct. 11, 2024. (Curt Fargo via AP)

A hot-air balloon struck and collapsed a radio tower Friday in Albuquerque, New Mexico, during the city's famous festival — the second time in 20 years that a balloon has come into contact with that tower.
There were no reports of injuries, said Kevin Carhart, a spokesperson for the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office. The balloon, which had three people on board, landed safely in a field after it struck the tower.
The tower transmits radio signal for KKOB-AM.
The Aerostar International Inc. S-57A balloon took off from a park as part of the 52nd annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, said the Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating.
It wasn't clear how tall the tower was. News footage of the aftermath showed no other structures in the path of the collapsed tower, The Associated Press reported.
In 2004, a balloon shaped like the face of Smokey Bear got wrapped around a radio tower during the festival, forcing the pilot and two passengers to climb most of the way down the structure. A festival spokesperson confirmed to the AP that is the same tower that a balloon struck Friday.
A balloon bumped into a power line earlier this week in Albuquerque on the festival's third day, leaving nearly 13,000 customers without power for almost an hour.
The fiesta is one of the world's most photographed events.

Most Viewed

 
 
Varieties

Everest Climber's Remains Believed Found after 100 Years

(FILES) This photograph taken on May 2, 2021 shows a helicopter flying over the Khumbu glacier in the Mount Everest region of Solukhumbu district, some 140kms northeast of Nepal's capital Kathmandu. (Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP)
(FILES) This photograph taken on May 2, 2021 shows a helicopter flying over the Khumbu glacier in the Mount Everest region of Solukhumbu district, some 140kms northeast of Nepal's capital Kathmandu. (Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP)
TT
TT

Everest Climber's Remains Believed Found after 100 Years

(FILES) This photograph taken on May 2, 2021 shows a helicopter flying over the Khumbu glacier in the Mount Everest region of Solukhumbu district, some 140kms northeast of Nepal's capital Kathmandu. (Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP)
(FILES) This photograph taken on May 2, 2021 shows a helicopter flying over the Khumbu glacier in the Mount Everest region of Solukhumbu district, some 140kms northeast of Nepal's capital Kathmandu. (Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP)

A documentary team discovered human remains on Mount Everest apparently belonging to a man who went missing while trying to summit the peak 100 years ago, National Geographic magazine reported Friday.

Climate change is thinning snow and ice around the Himalayas, increasingly exposing the bodies of mountaineers who died chasing their dream of scaling the world's highest mountain, AFP reported.

Briton Andrew Irvine went missing in 1924 alongside climbing partner George Mallory as the pair attempted to be the first to reach Everest's summit, 8,848 meters above sea level.

Mallory's body was found in 1999 but clues about Irvine's fate were elusive until a National Geographic team discovered a boot, still clothing the remains of a foot, on the peak's Central Rongbuk Glacier.

On closer inspection, they found a sock with "a red label that has A.C. IRVINE stitched into it", the magazine reported.

The discovery could give further clues as to the location of the team's personal effects and may help resolve one of mountaineering's most enduring mysteries: whether Irvine and Mallory ever managed to reach the summit.

That could confirm Irvine and Mallory as the first to successfully scale the peak, nearly three decades before the first currently recognised summit in 1953 by climbers Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.

"It tells the whole story about what probably happened," Irvine's great-niece Julie Summers told National Geographic.

Members of the Irvine family reportedly offered to share DNA samples to confirm the identity of the remains.

Irvine was 22 when he went missing.

He, along with Mallory, was last spotted by one of the members of their expedition on the afternoon of June 8, 1924, after beginning their final ascent to the summit that morning.

Irvine is believed to have been carrying a vest camera -- the discovery of which could rewrite mountaineering history.

Photographer and director Jimmy Chin, who was part of the National Geographic team, believes the discovery "certainly reduces the search area" for the elusive camera.

More than 300 people have perished on the mountain since expeditions started in the 1920s.

Some are hidden by snow or swallowed down deep crevasses.

Others, still in their colorful climbing gear, have become landmarks en route to the summit and bestowed with gallows humor nicknames, including "Green Boots" and "Sleeping Beauty.”