A BALLOON pilot forced to land at an Oxford primary school said it was one of the most dramatic moments of his 20-year flying career.

Peter Woodward, 39, said touching down on the lawn of Windmill Primary School in Headington was the most memorable landing he had experienced.

He and his crewmate had taken off from Botley Community Centre at about 8pm on Sunday, June 14, for a private trip, aiming to head north east over Oxford towards Brill, near Bicester.

But the wind dropped suddenly and Mr Woodward realised the balloon would not clear the city.

The father-of-one from Drayton, near Abingdon, said: “I tried to get into the back of the school, but as I came down the wind turned to the right and that is why I ended up on the front lawn.

“It was a completely normal landing and there was no panic. If I had the opportunity I would certainly land there again.

“When you go ballooning you just don’t know where you’re going to land.”

Mr Woodward said he had a satellite navigation system on board to give him the wind speed and altitude of the balloon.

When he set off the wind speed was forecast to be 10 knots at 1,000ft, but he soon discovered it was actually closer to 7.5 knots.

Mr Woodward, a business manager, who owns his own balloon and flies as a hobby, said he lifted the balloon to 3,500ft – about 2,000ft more than normal – hoping the wind would be stronger at a higher altitude.

He said: “As we went across the city the forecast wasn’t what it was.

“We didn’t even have enough wind to clear the city. The wind dropped and the light was going.

“The school came along and that is where I landed. There was no emergency.

“When we come in to land it does look quite dramatic. You need to drop in quite steeply.

Mr Woodward added: “When you are in the city with all those houses you do have to come in quite steep at times.

“Lots of people came out to look.”

Mr Woodward, who got his pilot’s licence four years ago, has been on hundreds of balloon flights including ones in Italy, Thailand, Germany, France and Spain.

After the landing, which he said did not clip the school’s chimney, but did take out a fence panel, he waited for his retrieval crew to arrive by road before packing the balloon into a trailer.

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