albuquerque, new mexico a hot air balloon crashes into a 700-foot radio tower, leaving the pilot and his two young passengers dangling from above with little hope for survival. bill chappell is a retired forester with the u.s. forest service. for the past 15 years, he s piloted a hot air balloon modeled after smokey bear, the consummate symbol of fire prevention. it s a lot of fun. we all have a grand time doing it. it s a good excuse to be a kid again. and at the same time preventing fires. but during a 2004 flight at the albuquerque international balloon fiesta, ironically it s the friendly face of smokey bear at the center of a catastrophe. well, it was like any other day. it was the last day of the fiesta here. the weather was as predictable as it could be. they had predicted calm breezes, and that s the way it started. bill has two young passengers in his balloon, 14-year-old troy wells and 10-year-old aaron whitaker. on that particular morning, we had what you call mi
passengers dangling from above with little hope for survival. bill chappell is a retired forester with the u.s. forest service. for the past 15 years, he s piloted a hot air balloon modeled after smokey bear, the consummate symbol of fire prevention. it s a lot of fun. we all have a grand time doing it. it s a good excuse to be a kid again. and at the same time preventing fires. but during a 2004 flight at the albuquerque international balloon fiesta, ironically it s the friendly face of smokey bear at the center of a catastrophe. well, it was like any other day. it was the last day of the fiesta here. the weather was as predictable as it could be. they had predicted calm breezes, and that s the way it started. bill has two young passengers in his balloon, 14-year-old troy wells and 10-year-old aaron
with little hope for survival. bill chappell is a retired forester with the u.s. forest service. for the past 15 years, he s piloted a hot air balloon modeled after smokey bear, the consummate symbol of fire prevention. it s a lot of fun. we all have a grand time doing it. it s a good excuse to be a kid again. and at the same time preventing fires. but during a 2004 flight at the albuquerque international balloon fiesta, ironically it s the friendly face of smokey bear at the center of a catastrophe. well, it was like any other day. it was the last day of the fiesta here. the weather was as predictable as it could be. they had predicted calm breezes, and that s the way it started. bill has two young passengers in his balloon, 14-year-old troy wells and 10-year-old aaron whitaker. on that particular morning,
before 10:30 eastern. we ll carry it live right here on cnn. little hope for survival. a hiker on mount st. helen s never made it out of the volcano s crater. he fell more than 1,500 feet while posing for a picture. a helicopter finally recovered his body. he wasn t wearing a helmet. that s a long ways to fall and that s a pretty nasty wall in there. he moved back and said get rainier in the background. right about then, pop and he was grabbing for the edge or grabbing the air i guess at that point and disappeared. 52-year-old joseph bolig was an experienced climber who had been up on that volcano about 60 times. they re going to do an autopsy to see if he died from that fall or the exposure. he had also taken his coat off for that picture. progressive with the plan in afghanistan. u.s. marines taking control of a taliban stronghold but the fight is still far from over. i m rob marciano in the cnn
separated in the heat of battle. and stranded at sea for months with little hope for survival. we probably had less than 24 hours before our boat sank. wow. two women drifting in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by sharks. the lucky break that likely saved their lives.