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 microbursts or wind shears that just come out of nowhere. a sudden wind that just fouled everything up that morning. a spectator on the ground captures the moment when the
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 microbursts or wind shears that just come out of nowhere. a sudden wind that just fouled everything up that morning. a spectator on the ground captures the moment when 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 microbursts or wind shears that just come out of nowhere. a sudden wind that just fouled everything up that morning.
the propellers were common they weren t affected by them but because the jets because it goes rapid changes of wind direction would lose altitude or crash short of runway. that is why people put two and two and thought yesterday s crash in san francisco might be a microburst. gregg: you see no sign of that? no sign at all. i m certain there was no microburst involved. gregg: pilots are well-equipped to be able to detect microbursts and wind shear in advance? thanks to the work of dr. fugita, john mccarthy and number of researches. we have the technology in place to let the pilots know when a microburst may be present and stay away from it. pilots are taught how to get out of it if they wanted into one.
air and very good atmosphere for flying. light winds, clear skies, good visibility. so we know it wasn t a microbursted because we didn t have the right kind of clouds for one. gregg: now, talk to us a little bit about microbursts. a generation ago in 70s and 80s, microbursts was the number one cause of commercial airline accidents. we were losing a plane about every 12-18 months. we didn t understand until a doctor came along, you hear the name associated with the fugita scale and tornadoes, he discovered the type of intense change in wind speed and wind direction that we call a microburst. jet planes are much more susceptible to microburst wind shear than propeller planes. you had in the 200afgs when