ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – There’s been at least three rough balloon landings this week alone, one getting trapped in trees, and two more colliding with some power lines.

But none of those compare to this harrowing disaster back in 2004. New Mexicans will surely remember watching the Smokey Bear balloon crash into a radio tower, putting the lives of the pilot and two young boys in jeopardy.

Thursday was the 20th anniversary of that notorious crash. For the first time since that fateful day, KOB 4 spoke with one of the boys in that basket, and the man who helped bring all of them back to the ground.

“That was my first Balloon Fiesta,” said Troy Wells. “Got my first chance to go up in a balloon. Didn’t land that one quite as I was supposed to.” 

Troy Wells was just a Rio Rancho middle schooler back in 2004 when he got roped into volunteering with the Smokey Bear balloon crew.

“They’d kind of like, pick people kind of last minute to from the crew to go up, And on the last day of the Balloon Fiesta I got my chance,” said Wells. 

The 14 year old and 10-year-old Aaron Whitacre joined longtime balloon pilot Bill Chapel for a typical flight over Albuquerque.

“People say it’s like the Earth dropping below you, and that was definitely my, my experience,” Wells said. “I remember we were coming along, kind of the river. And as we were coming back up, like I could see the tower there.” 

A 650-foot radio tower.

“We were getting closer, but we were kind of on a trajectory to clear it. But then the wind just kind of picked up, and we hit it,” Wells said. “Right before we hit it, I’m pretty sure Bill said some profanity or something, like, oh, something, you know. And when he said that, I was like, ‘Oh, if the pilot’s saying that, that’s not good.’” 

It wasn’t good.

“I mean, it’s like being in a car wreck, right? Like you’re getting tossed around,” said Wells.  “You think, like, this is what falling in a balloon feels like. I was just like, OK, like, I’m gonna die, you know, we’re going to fall from, you know, 70 stories or whatever.” 

Wells says the pilot grabbed the tower to stabilize the basket, and then it was time to get out.

“Tower is kind of going like this, and you can hear it. You can hear the metal bending, or the cables,” said Wells. “Sounds that you shouldn’t be hearing from radio towers, right?”

Wells says Whitacre started climbing down the ladder first, then him, and then the pilot after he shut off the balloon’s propane tanks.

“I did look down. I fortunately, I’m not somebody who’s, like, particularly afraid of heights. But, you know, I was afraid of those heights, because you should be,” Wells said. 

The man who helped rescue the trio would agree.

“The highest distance I had worked before was probably 100 feet or so,” said Christopher Perez, a retired PNM lineman. 

Perez was a PNM lineman at the time and assumed he was brought in to offer advice.

“I looked at one of the lieutenants, or the chief at the time, and I said, ‘Well, somebody’s gotta go up there,’” said Perez. “Once I heard there were kids, I was hoping that there would be somebody that would have the courage and faith to go and do something like that for my kids. So that was my driving force, was thinking about my girls.” 

Perez says he climbed hundreds of feet to help Whitacre down, then went back up for Wells. Then, he back up a third time to help bring Chapel down.

“For them to come down the height that they already did, you know, kudos to them. But by the time I got to them, none of them wanted to move anymore,” said Perez. 

Everyone made it back down to the ground safely.

“At the time, it was all over the news, and that’s when it hit me. Like, whoa. Like, that was me, like, I should not have survived that. You know, so that’s when, like, kind of a sense of appreciation of what had happened really hit me,” said Wells.

Even after all of that.

“They were able to fundraise and get the new Smokey the Bear balloon. Bill the pilot was going to fly it, and asked me if I wanted to go up in it for the first time at the Balloon Fiesta. And I said, yes. So I was there the first day of Balloon Fiesta the next year in the balloon,” Wells said. 

Wells lives on the East Coast now and still watches the Balloon Fiesta with his family every year, but the harrowing memories live on.

“Every time I drive down Second, going northbound or southbound, I see the towers. I don’t bring them up all the time, but as I’m driving by, I definitely think about it every time I drive by them, especially for the Balloon Fiesta now,” said Perez. 

The Smokey Bear balloon is still a popular sight at the Balloon Fiesta every year, and it just got an upgrade.

The replacement balloon served it’s time, and there is a brand new Smokey Bear balloon taking the skies at this year’s Balloon Fiesta.