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Show i pair Recovering After Balloon Crash CIRCLE VILLE Two California Cali-fornia men who were critically injured in-jured early Monday when their he-lium-fiU balloon crashed 10 miles southeast of Circleville after an unexpected 400 mile ride from southern California, are improving from their injuries. Ron Martin, 46, an electrical contractor from Long Beach, Calif., and Scott Hendricks, 30, a tile contractor from Norco, Calif., were found about 10 a.m. in a rugged section of the Mt, Dutton area by I two Civil Air Patrol members and taken out by members of the -"arfield and Piute county sheriffs Alices. Both were taken to Garfield Memorial Hospital suffering from back injuries and fractures. Hendricks Hen-dricks was later transported by ambulance am-bulance to LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City. Both were reported as stable but in serious condition Wednesday. The men took off about 6 p.m. Sunday from Perris, Calif., east of Anaheim and had planned a leisurely leisure-ly overnight flight that was to end in the southern California desert However, southwesterly winds which the National Weather Service said reached 45 to 63 mph at the 10,000 foot level carried them beyond be-yond their original destination and the balloon made a hard crash-landing about 7:15 a.m. Monday near Circleville. Hajnalka Krieg, of the Perris-based Perris-based Scorpion Balloons, Inc., a company that sells hot-air balloons and trains pilots to fly them, said this was supposed to be a fun-flight. fun-flight. Kreig and her husband Fred are co-owners with Mr. Martin of the custom-made blue and yellow helium balloon which was designed to fly long distances. Kreig said the pair had planned to stay in the Los Angeles Basin overnight, go over the San Gabriel Mountains and land somewhere in the desert around sunrise Monday. However, high winds changed those plans and the men ended up some 400 miles away near Circleville. Cir-cleville. The men had maintained radio communications with the Federal Aviation Administration and informed in-formed an L. A. center that they were losing elevation rapidly about 7:15 a.m. Radar contact was lost shortly thereafter when they landed near Circleville. A Civil Air Patrol plane piloted by Hal Ward, along with spotter Jim Porter, both Richfield, left for the area about 9:30 a.m. and spotted spot-ted the wreckage about 10 a.m. They notified Garfield County Sheriffs officials of the location, and an ambulance from Piute County was dispatched to the area, along with rescue officers. The ambulance was able to drive to within a mile of the crash scene, but rescuers had to drive the rest of the way into the area with four-wheel four-wheel drive units. Two Piute County EMTs accompanied the sheriffs officers and gave on-the-spot treatment before moving the two to the waiting ambulance and the trip to Panguitch. Two people who were "tracking" the balloon had also lost contact with the occupants after they had driven along the same ba- sic path as the balloon. Allan Calder, Marina Del Rey, Calif, and Karen Martin, La Verne, Calif., lost contact with the balloon about 4 a.m. They were in Circleville when they learned that the balloon had crashed. The balloon was equipped with communications and emergency equipment, cooking facilities, sleeping bags and body suits for sub-zero weather. However, because of the hard landing, high wind and injuries to the men, the scattered equipment was unable to be utilized after the unit crashed. The balloon was taken from the scene by officers as they removed the two victims. Garfield County Sheriff Robert Judd headed the rescue operation. Garfield County posse members involved in the search and rescue were Denny Orton, Johnny Talbot, Dave Dodds, Russell Bulkley, Tim Simkins and Arnold Keown. Physicians assistant Bob Mc-Cullough Mc-Cullough was at the Circleville Clinic and was notified to meet with search and rescue teams to provide emergency medical care. While waiting to be picked up he noticed a T-shirt with a balloon drawing on it, worn by Karen Martin, Mar-tin, a chase team member, at a Circleville Cafe and asked if they were involved with the balloon that went down. That was the first the chase team knew about the balloon's crash-landing. |