This day in history: Man injured in hot air balloon crash. WWI flying ace talks cars and planes in Spokane visit

From 1975: A runaway hot-air balloon crashed into the backyard of a North Side residence, injuring a crew member of the balloon .

The balloon was part of a promotion for Fairwood Shopping Center – but this was an unscheduled flight.

The crew was trying to “load the balloon into a trailer from an airborne position when the maneuver failed and balloon and its pilot headed skyward.”

The pilot, 24, tried to bring the balloon down, but it traveled about three blocks before it approached some power lines and crashed behind the home on North Madison Street.

Some witnesses said the pilot ‘bailed out,” while others said he appeared to “ride it out.”

He was treated for back injuries at the scene and rushed to Deaconess Hospital.

From 1925: Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, the World War I “Ace of Aces,” stopped over in Spokane on his annual trip through the West.

Rickenbacker had started his own automobile firm, Rickenbacker Motor Co, and was visiting his distributors. Yet aviation, for which he was famous, was foremost on his mind.

He said that aviation was “the most important factor in the world’s progress today,” and he predicted that airlines and landing fields would be established in all the larger cities within a few years.” An airline from Minneapolis to Seattle “would be an assured fact within five years.”

“I would say that your community here would do well to prepare now for what will come within the next few years,” Rickenbacker said. “Your air field should be enlarged and improved, or if the ground is not suitable other land should be bought at once. … The city without airplane facilities will be as backward as the country towns 25 years ago.”