Hot air balloon makes emergency landing in prison parking lot


If the writers on Orange is the New Black are short some storylines for season three, this might fit the bill.
A pilot and two passengers in a hot air balloon landed in the parking lot of the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, in Oregon, on Thursday. The visitors were taking part in a nearby Festival of Balloons, but strong winds and a fuel shortage sent pilot Randall Fuehrer toward the first open area he could find.
"The parking lot is far enough from the main facility that we felt confident in assuming this wasn't an inmate escape attempt," Vicki Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the prison, told The Oregonian.
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Still, inmates in the nearby recreation yard were sent inside for about 30 minutes, until prison officials confirmed there was no threat and removed the balloon.
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Sarah Eberspacher is an associate editor at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked as a sports reporter at The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus and The Arizona Republic. She graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
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