Balloon Crash Survivor Meg Reynolds Explains Her Return to Flight
Meg Reynolds did not want a February balloon crash to end a connection to flying that began in childhood. In this article, Balloon Crash Survivor Meg Reynolds explains her return to flight. Six months after the accident, she was back in the air, according to KLTV. Air Sports Net original story on this event was published here.
In an interview published September 15, Reynolds described surviving the tower collision near Longview, Texas, and explained why she returned. Her account adds a personal chapter to a rescue that drew attention months earlier.
The crash occurred February 28, 2026. FOX 7, citing the Longview Fire Department, reported that the balloon struck a communications tower in northern Gregg County at an estimated height of 920 feet. Firefighters began the rescue shortly before 9 a.m. and reached the occupants around 10 a.m. Multiple rope systems were needed because of the operation’s height and complexity.
Reynolds credited phone conversations with Longview Fire Captain Ramey Blaylock with helping her through the wait. She told KLTV that ballooning had been part of her life since age four, when her mother joined the Great Texas Balloon Race board in 1992.
That family connection grew within an established ballooning community. The Great Texas Balloon Race began in 1978, when pilot Bill Bussey helped promote the opening of Longview Mall by flying a balloon carrying its banner. Organizers added an evening balloon glow two years later, illuminating tethered balloons for spectators. The race also hosted the U.S. National Hot Air Balloon Championship from 2012 through 2015.
Like the Great Forest Park Balloon Race in St. Louis, the Longview event combines ballooning with a public celebration of flight. Its history helps explain how a sport can become part of a community’s identity.
Longview has also taken steps to commemorate the February rescue. A city call for artists sought a permanent outdoor sculpture honoring the firefighters, with tower, rope and hand imagery emphasizing the rescue effort.
Reynolds’s own next step remained unfinished when she spoke with KLTV: her first untethered flight since the crash, planned for Albuquerque’s balloon festival. She hoped to wear the orange sweatshirt from the accident and give it a happier association.
“Losing my mom and my dad, I didn’t want that accident to take that away from me too,” she told KLTV.
