Out-of-control hot air balloon plows through crowd at a Missouri bicentennial festival

A Missouri bicentennial festival took an unexpected turn on Saturday when an out-of-control hot air balloon nearly crash-landed, knocking over several spectators in the process, video shows.

Hannibal, Missouri, known for being the childhood home of Mark Twain, celebrated its bicentennial this weekend. Founded in 1819, Hannibal served as the setting for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but on Saturday, it made headlines for a different reason.

Video shows a green hot air balloon plowing through a crowd of people, knocking down tree branches, lawn chairs and a number of spectators as onlookers screamed. The basket can be seen tipping over, the front scraping the grass before flipping upright as the balloon gains altitude.

“Yeah, that’s coming in hot,” one woman said in a video posted to Facebook. “This was the last way I would have thought I might die,” the caption said.

The Hannibal Bicentennial Celebration committee said a young girl was injured and one man said his mother suffered a cut to her hand, KHQA reported, but the event continued as planned.

This story was originally published June 23, 2019 at 12:08 PM with the headline "Out-of-control hot air balloon plows through crowd at a Missouri bicentennial festival."