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‘Too much emotion for one balloon’: Three couples get engaged in a hot air balloon, then it crashes

All 10 passengers and crew escaped uninjured.

All 10 passengers and crew escaped uninjured. Photo: AAP

A hot air balloon carrying three couples who got engaged in overcast skies over Melbourne has landed in trees in a suburban backyard.

In proposals that are sure to live on in stories around the dinner table and to their children, three couples took off just before dawn in a Triple M stamped balloon on Friday when it got into trouble.

The couples, part of a convoy of balloons, told Channel Nine the proposals were “more terrifying than the bumby landing”.

According to the Country Fire Authority, the balloon landed near the Karingal Yallock Creek in the outer north-eastern suburb of Eltham North just before 7.30am after taking off near Heatherton.

As the basket touched down, the balloon was caught in a tree and had to be cut free by firefighters using chainsaws after it was blown off course from its original landing point near the Yarra River.

Brendan O’Loughlin, who proposed to partner Emma Govan while hovering above the city, told the ABC: “There was too much emotion for one balloon”.

He said the trees “ripped a few holes in the balloon” but described the take-off as “scarier than the landing”.

Up to 10 people including two other couples and the pilot were on board, reported the ABC.

https://twitter.com/jnicou/status/1075859074615365632

A passenger in another balloon, Nial Finegan, filmed the balloon above the clouds before it made its quick descent, congratulating one of the happy couples who had got engaged.

https://twitter.com/NialFinegan/status/1075881176424841217

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