Mike Fairbanks wrote an article about this flight in Skywriter. The following is some of what he wrote in the article.

The Balloon Club of America owned this 80,000 cu. ft. Gas balloon. These early balloons were never named so this was called the “Old 80”. We flew over Philadelphia. Even from an altitude of 4000 feet above the ground the tall buildings of Philadelphia looked like tall buildings. For about one hour the balloon seemed to hang over Philadelphia. The slow morning winds pushed the 80,000 cu. ft. ever so slowly. The balloon was filled with cooking gas and it leaked. There was a constant throwing overboard of handfuls of sand to maintain level flight. During every inflation of this gas balloon, there would be small tears or areas of dry rot that the ground crew would have to cover with strips of rubberized cotton material held in place by shoe glue from a local merchant.

I continued to glance from our depleting bags of sand to the city below. As the “Old 80” approached the Delaware River to cross over into New Jersey, all that we could see in our direction of travel were houses after houses after houses. Finally, the balloon was gently and ever so slowly pushed by the wind over the Delaware River and into the airspace of New Jersey. Tony allowed the balloon to begin a slow but constant descent toward the ground. Residential houses covered the earth as a thick carpet. On the bottom of the wicker basket rested five bags of sand. Each sandbag weighs about thirty pounds. To stop the descent and reach level flight at fifty feet above the houses and street wires,  required a full bag of sand to be poured over the side of the basket.

The balloon flew over the houses at a steady five miles per hour traveling in a straight line. Tony had to keep his eyes fixed on the ground to assure our flight remained level and safely above the houses and street wires. We looked in the direction of our travel to find the perfect backyard or small field which would allow the landing of our aircraft. There was none. The pilot turned around to reach for another bag of sand, I lifted my hands in the air to indicate “there is no more sand”.

Tony threw the hundred and twenty foot heavy hemp rope over the side of the basket. The weight of the drag rope, which is attached to the load ring above our heads, is designed to slow the descent and in light winds stop the forward travel of the balloon. The use of the hemp rope is after a final landing site has been chosen.

Total silence from pilots and passengers as we crashed on the roof of a two story building. The wicker basket turned onto its side as the four of us were, for a moment, laying horizontal and looking at the ground below. The basket then slid along the roof before the bounce of the balloon lifted the basket a dozen feet above the roof to crash onto the roof a second time. After the second crash the basket remained upright with the balloon over our heads.

The basket started to slide down the side of the roof facing the street. I looked at the telephone poles and the electric wires and momentarily thought of the cooking gas contained in the balloon above our heads. If two strands of wires are pushed together by the weight of the basket or the balloon, a spark would cause a massive fire. We could do nothing but watch our slow slide toward the wires.

Suddenly, the basket settled and stopped its slide. We looked backward toward the rear yard of the house and a young boy possibly twelve years old had wrapped the hemp drag rope around a tree. He did this without instruction from pilots or crew. Our chase crew arrived within minutes. The balloon was gently pulled into the rear yard to be deflated and packed onto our trailer. A multitude of spectators arrived from the neighborhood to share in our joy of another successful gas balloon flight and to assist with the deflation of the balloon. We had landed on a church rectory. Coffee and donuts were provided by the occupants. I never knew the name of the young boy.