Aircraft - Aviation - Balloons - Helicopters
Sep. 09, 1979 - Families escape from East Germany in Home made hot air balloon: Two families made the most fantastic defection over by flying across the East German Border into West Germany in a home-made hot-air balloon. Four adults and four children, the youngest only two years, made a 30 minutes flight to freedom on a wooden platform only 4 1/2 ft. square. The balloon envelope, 137ft. high and 114ft. across stitched together by the two wives from nylon sheets and curtains the East German village of Possack, in the provice of Thuringia, Six miles south lay the border, Bavaria and freedom. They landed near the small town of Naila, north of Nuremberg, two miles inside the West German border. Photo shows Hans-Peter Strlzik(back-centre), with his wife Doris, and two sons, Frank and Andres-right-side, adn Petra Wetzel with her two sons, seated on the small platform which carried them across the border
