- A man in China drifted away in a hydrogen balloon while picking nuts and was rescued days later.
- After floating 186 miles, Hu Yongxu managed to land in a forest and escaped with minor injuries.
A Chinese man who drifted away in a hydrogen balloon while picking pine nuts has been rescued after being stranded in the wilderness for almost two days, Chinese state media outlet CCTV reported.
Hu Yongxu and his colleague had been harvesting pine nuts in China's Heilongjiang province when they lost control of the hydrogen balloon they were in and "rose uncontrollably," per CCTV. While the other man managed to jump off the balloon, Hu was left stranded in the balloon as it drifted more than 186 miles.
Videos and photos circulating on the Chinese social media platform Weibo showed a white-colored balloon drifting in the sky above a dense pine forest.
In one video obtained by CCTV, a man can be heard shouting, "It went up! One of them came down, but the balloon is flying away!"
According to the outlet, local authorities were informed of Hu's situation, and about 40 people were mobilized in the initial rescue operation. Police were able to reach Hu by phone the following morning and instructed him on how to deflate the balloon to help it descend.
Although Hu managed to land safely in the forest, rescuers had to continue combing the area in search of him as they could not pinpoint his exact location using his phone location service, per CCTV.
The following day, nearly 500 people from local police and fire departments were sent out looking for Hu. He was eventually found with minor injuries to his waist.
Per SCMP, Hu had been left adrift in the balloon for eight hours and stranded in the wilderness for another 40 hours.
This is not the first time such an incident has taken place in China.
In August 2017, a man in Jilin province was harvesting nuts in a hydrogen balloon when it was blown away by strong winds, Jimu News reported. He floated for over 30 miles before he managed to deflate the balloon and was rescued.
In September 2019, two other people from Hesheng village in the same province accidentally drifted away while picking nuts but managed to land successfully, per Jimu News.
Despite the danger, using highly flammable hydrogen balloons remains a preferred method for picking nuts in China.
Another nut-picker, known by his surname Lu, in Heilongjiang province told Red Star News that a hydrogen balloon is "the best option" currently available as it is "much safer and more efficient than climbing trees," CCTV reported.