Hot air balloon makes surprise landing in St Kilda, Melbourne

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Terrifying moment a hot air balloon crashes on Melbourne’s busiest beach, colliding with a billboard as it touched down

  • Balloon made an emergency landing on a Melbourne beach on Wednesday
  • The flight narrowly missed a major highway and struck a sign during its descent.
  • Footage of ‘close call’ in St Kilda shared online, viewers left shocked
  • This comes after a balloon landed at a local reserve in Vic’s Ascot Vale on Friday.

Onlookers were stunned when a hot air balloon made an emergency landing in a Melbourne beachfront suburb on Wednesday morning.

Early morning walkers watched as the balloon sailed through buildings, skidded off a major highway, and crashed into a traffic signal around 7:30 a.m.

The video shows the balloon landing softly on the beach at St Kilda.

An eyewitness shared the video on Instagram, captioning it a “close call at St Kilda”, with viewers praising the pilot’s “great effort” in landing it.

The hot air balloon had a 'close call' with buildings and a main road, before colliding with a traffic signal during its descent.

The hot air balloon had a ‘close call’ with buildings and a main road, before colliding with a traffic signal during its descent.

The incident follows another hot air balloon being forced to make an emergency landing at a local park in Melbourne’s Ascot Vale last Friday.

The spate of emergency landings has led some to wonder what has been happening to hot air balloons, with ‘So many incidents [happening] recently’.

More to come.

The balloon then landed on St Kilda beach (pictured), in footage captured by a shocked onlooker.

The balloon then landed on St Kilda beach (pictured), in footage captured by a shocked onlooker.