Third generation balloonist to fly at Bristol Balloon Fiesta
Mr Hall said there had been lots of balloons in the house during his childhood."I'd invite friends around and we were jumping around baskets, being a nuisance, swinging around the office chair pretending to run the business at the age of seven."He took charge of his first flight aged 14 in France."My dad jumped out of the basket, and said 'just fly over the forest, we'll find you on the other side'."
Mr Hall now flies hot air balloons in India, and has travelled all over the world."It's not so commercialised in India as it is in the rest of the world. I think there's only four Indian pilots in total," he said."When you come to land, there will be hundreds, potentially thousands of people that just surround the basket, and they want selfies and to shake your hand, which is really nice."Though ballooning is more familiar to people here, it still draws huge crowds. That interest carries the world over," Mr Hall added.
What started out as a hobby has now become a full-time job for Mr Hall."Sometimes when that happens you can lose interest, but it hasn't happened for me yet," he said."Everybody loves a balloon flight, and it's pretty rewarding when you're giving someone a once in a lifetime experience, and it's one of those things that is accessible to nearly everyone, yet still quite an adventure."I enjoy the chaos of not knowing whether you're coming or going, and it's all very weather dependent, but that's how we work," Mr Hall added.
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BBC News
4 hours ago
- BBC News
Third generation balloonist to fly at Bristol Balloon Fiesta
A third generation hot air balloonist who has flown all over the world has said the Bristol Balloon Fiesta is a huge part of his Hall, 32, from Taunton, runs Flyaway Ballooning, and grew up around the activity. His grandmother, Gwen Bellew, was one of the British female pilots in 1968 and his mother, father, sister and uncle all had licenses."My dad used to fly from Bath and I spent my childhood sitting on the tank, watching him fly, sometimes before school. We'd land in a field and I'd get a bit of champagne afterwards," Mr Hall Hall is among many pilots who will fly at the Bristol Balloon Fiesta which is being held between 8-10 August. Mr Hall said there had been lots of balloons in the house during his childhood."I'd invite friends around and we were jumping around baskets, being a nuisance, swinging around the office chair pretending to run the business at the age of seven."He took charge of his first flight aged 14 in France."My dad jumped out of the basket, and said 'just fly over the forest, we'll find you on the other side'." Mr Hall now flies hot air balloons in India, and has travelled all over the world."It's not so commercialised in India as it is in the rest of the world. I think there's only four Indian pilots in total," he said."When you come to land, there will be hundreds, potentially thousands of people that just surround the basket, and they want selfies and to shake your hand, which is really nice."Though ballooning is more familiar to people here, it still draws huge crowds. That interest carries the world over," Mr Hall added. What started out as a hobby has now become a full-time job for Mr Hall."Sometimes when that happens you can lose interest, but it hasn't happened for me yet," he said."Everybody loves a balloon flight, and it's pretty rewarding when you're giving someone a once in a lifetime experience, and it's one of those things that is accessible to nearly everyone, yet still quite an adventure."I enjoy the chaos of not knowing whether you're coming or going, and it's all very weather dependent, but that's how we work," Mr Hall added.
Daily Mail
14 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Terror aboard Air India jet from San Francisco after COCKROACHES were spotted scuttling in the cabin
Air India passengers were left panicked and disgusted after spotting cockroaches on their flight from San Francisco to Mumbai. Fliers aboard flight AI180 faced the unsettling inconvenience when two passengers noticed the oval-shaped insects in the cabin after the flight took off on Sunday. Staffers moved the concerned travelers to different seats when they made the skin-crawling discovery, according to a statement from the airline. The cockroaches were first seen at the start of the lengthy flight - meaning passengers were likely on edge for most of the 16-hour trip. Air India said when the flight made its scheduled refueling stop in Kolkata, the crew 'promptly conducted a deep cleaning process to address the issue.' The Kolkata stop was about 14 hours and 30 minutes into the trip, according to FlightAware. After the cleaning session, the flight resumed its journey to Mumbai without further delays. The airline has launched an internal investigation to determine how the insects boarded the aircraft and how to prevent similar occurrences in the future. The cockroaches were seen toward the start of the lengthy flight - meaning passengers were likely on edge for most of the 16-hour trip (stock image) Air India acknowledged the disruption and explained that insects can occasionally enter planes during ground operations despite routine fumigation protocols. 'On flight AI180 from San Francisco to Mumbai via Kolkata, two passengers were unfortunately bothered by the presence of a few small cockroaches on board,' a spokesperson admitted on X. 'We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused to the passengers.' This online apology has sparked an uproar, with social media users around the globe calling out the airline for the revolting ordeal. 'Air India services quality have deteriorated to the lowest possible sub par! From impeccable to downright shoddy and disgusting,' someone wrote. 'Best is to avoid flying @airindia till they clean up their act,' another man wrote. This is not the first time Air India fliers have complained about the unwanted guests joining them on their flights. This online apology has sparked an uproar, with social media users around the globe calling out the airline for the revolting ordeal Several videos have been shared online, allegedly showing cockroaches crawling on airplane seats. At times, they have even been spotted in people's meals. These insect sightings did not all emerge recently either - with a food journalist calling out the airline nearly 10 years ago after finding a dead bug in his flight dinner. Vegetarian journalist Rahul Raghuvanshi, based in Boston, shared a photo of his grim discovery on Twitter in 2016. 'Air India now serves cockroach for vegetarian meals on AI127 #sicktomystomach #traumatized #cockroachinfood,' he wrote on X, then Twitter. He was sitting in economy - already halfway through his meal - when he found it, and says he was on a flight to Chicago from the Indian city of Hyderabad. At the time, Air India addressed the unwelcome ingredient, issuing a similar statement to the one they shared on Monday. 'Air India took serious note of the incident and issued notice to the caterer concerned immediately. Further investigation is going on,' a spokesperson said. When the travelers made the skin-crawling discovery, flight staffers moved them to different seats in the same class, according to a statement from the airline (file photo) Sunday's debacle came shortly after an operational issue on another Air India aircraft. A Delhi–bound flight was canceled due to excessively high cabin temperatures prior to takeoff. Flight AI500 was called off from leaving Bhubaneswar due to a technical issue that caused the Airbus A321 aircraft's cabin to reach excruciating temperatures, according to an airline statement.
Daily Mail
14 hours ago
- Daily Mail
I was slapped an £18 Clean Air Zone fine then wasted FIVE months and £100s fighting the tickets... council is to blame
On the face of it, an innocuous work trip to Bristol offers the chance to get out of the office and take in a new part of the country with a few colleagues. But, for Colin Griffiths, what promised to be an enticing two-day visit to the West Country turned into a five-month ordeal as a battle over a pair of Clean Air Zone fines prompted sleepless nights, a ruined holiday and a spiralling bill on the company card. The 56-year-old, from Bedford, was initially handed a reduced penalty of £18 but, despite paying it immediately, saw it increase more than 10-fold to £267 after the council claimed he had not coughed up the cash. In reality, it was the local authority that had been kicking its heels, taking weeks at a time to respond to Mr Griffiths's appeals and hiking the fines with no apparent rhyme or reason. The beleaguered employee eventually paid the heavily inflated amount just to put the nightmare behind him, but it left a distinctly sour taste in his mouth. He told the Daily Mail that he should not even have been fined in the first place. 'I didn't see any any notices whatsoever,' he said. 'Absolutely none. 'My friend, subsequently, said, "yeah, they're an absolute nightmare, their signs are not obvious at all."' A month after his two-night stay in the city in early October 2024, Mr Griffiths was told by the company's accountant that he had received two fines for breaching a Clean Air Zone in the Green Party-run city. The policy was introduced in November 2022 and applies to all vehicles except a limited number of petrol-powered vehicles released since 2006; one type of diesel vehicles released since the end of 2015; fully electric or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles; Energy Saving Trust's Clean Vehicle Retrofit Accreditation Scheme vehicles; and motorbikes. It is one of seven such zones in England, with London boasting a similar but separate Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez). But Mr Griffiths was none the wiser about the scheme, which meant his car had been slapped with a £9 daily charge, boosted to £69 each thanks to a supposed delay in paying despite the council not contacting him for four weeks. He appealed both of them - a decision that would prompt months of misery and a penalty which would soon spiral out of control. It took the council a further four weeks to respond to his correspondence, at which point it said he could be let off with a £9 fine for the Sunday offence, with seemingly no news regarding the Saturday one. Mr Griffiths claims he paid this straight away, through the link and code provided, and the money left his account, heralding what he thought was the end of an already frustrating ordeal. He should be so lucky. In January, Bristol City Council revisited the saga and told him he had not paid the fine after all and that he had supposedly ignored letters of reminder over the festive period. An investigation later found that he had paid the sum to Bath Council instead, although Mr Griffiths is insistent he used the link and reference code provided by Bristol. The local authority also finally got back to Mr Griffiths about the Saturday penalty and said that this was also late, meaning he owed £129 for this one alone. All this, despite it being the first correspondence he had had regarding the Saturday fine since he appealed it back in November. 'They just kept putting on more and more fines and fees,' he said. Nonetheless, he dug into his pockets to pay the penalty and end the saga once and for all. But it was still far from over. In February, Bristol revisited the Sunday penalty, claiming he had not paid it in December when he said he had. It turned out the fine somehow went to Bath Council despite Mr Griffiths using the link and code provided by Bristol in their email. The upshot was a rehiking of the already hiked penalty, the £120 added onto the original £9 would be shooting up to £180, creating a mega Clean Air fine of £189. Bristol also threatened the increasingly stressed Mr Griffiths with a court appearance. 'I'd been on holiday, and I was getting really stressed about this because their senior manager just wasn't interested in communicating with me anymore,' he said. 'So on that basis, [they said] "tough, it's going to go to a debt recovery agency, so we'll see you in court." 'I actually can't be dealing with this - it's a lot of money, but I don't need the aggravation. It's ruining my holiday. I'm having sleepless nights.' He gave in - and paid the eye-watering £189 figure Bristol had concocted, meaning he had now spent £267 on the two fines, including the £9 December payment and the £69 January transfer. This was painful for Mr Griffiths, who insists he did everything right and any delays were caused by the council's own tardiness. 'I did everything that they asked,' he said. 'I dealt with everything in a timely fashion as soon as I received it and paid them straight away, and even chased them. 'It's upsetting, and I like to do the right thing by people. And I was on holiday and getting these emails, I'm like, "I don't need this aggravation and worrying about it", especially as it's a company car, not mine, and I'm worried. 'My boss knows I wouldn't have abused his hospitality, but it was very stressful, it really was. 'Absolutely [the fact it was company car made it more stressful]. I just felt totally pressured into paying it. 'I paid it and I had to bite the bullet and walk away. I cannot emphasise the stress it put me under.' Will it make him think twice about visiting the Green-run city again? 'Definitely. My friend's wife said you can't obviously see the signs for the Ulez - they don't make it obvious at all,' he said. 'It's a money-making scheme.' For Mr Griffiths, the time for apologies is over and only a refund could make him feel better about his Clean Air Zone nightmare. He added: 'I would love my money back. Not expecting a penny out of them though. It was outrageous. 'I want my money back. Not an apology. 'I can't see compensation happening, but 100 per cent (think I'm entitled to it). They're keyboard warriors - or bullies rather.'
