Video shows hot air balloon carrying 13 people make emergency landing in Temecula backyard

TEMECULA, Calif. (KABC) -- Shocking video out of Riverside County shows the moment a hot air balloon landed in the backyard of a home. Now, the homeowners are speaking to Eyewitness News about their stunning experience.

It wasn't the landing anyone expected, but somehow, a hot air balloon carrying 13 people landed in the backyard of a Temecula home on Saturday.

The homeowner was watching TV around 8:30 a.m. when a neighbor knocked on his door.

"I go and answer the door. This guy's like, 'They just landed in your backyard!!!'" said Hunter Perrin. "And I'm like, 'What!?'"

Perrin and his wife, Jenna, who was in another room at the time, then went outside to see what had happened.

"I open the sliding glass door, and there's a basket full of thirteen people in my backyard!" Perrin said. "The pilot, he was masterful. He got it right down inside, like directly into the backyard, where there was nothing. The balloon didn't catch on anything. No one was injured."

The homeowners say the hot air balloon pilot told them the wind died, forcing him to make an emergency landing.

"You can kind of see in the video of how they came in. He kind of plopped straight down and was moving very slowly," Perrin said.

"And I run to the backyard, and there's a whole group of people that are just waving at me," Jenna said. "And I'm like, 'Oh my God. So the sound I heard was the flames?!' And I'm like... hi!'"

Incredibly, there was no damage in the backyard and no one was injured.

Eyewitness News spoke to one of the passengers about the moments that led up to the emergency landing.

"At first I was like, 'Oh my God! We're in a backyard! This is crazy!'" said hot air balloon passenger Brianna Avalos.

Avalos and her husband were taking their first hot air balloon ride to celebrate their 10th anniversary. As they started approaching the neighborhood, Avalos says the pilot made an announcement.

"He said there's not enough wind, because the wind kind of like, stopped a little bit. And he was like, 'We're going to land.' And we only had a little bit of fuel left," Avalos said.

Neighbors gathered in the street to watch.

"He was trying to get us to the street, but we couldn't get to the street in time, so we landed in the people's backyard safe and sound, like no one's hurt, everyone's great. He was an amazing pilot!" Avalos said.