Recalling Ill-Fated Balloon
The weather was fine and the sky was that special September blue on the day in 1970 when people came together on the pastureland at George Sid Miller’s farm on Fireplace Road in Springs.
Normally, horses grazed alone in that field, but on this morning a crowd gathered at dawn where the Free Life, a seven-story hot air balloon, had been slowly filled with helium overnight and was scheduled to be launched with three adventurers aboard who were seeking to make history with a successful trans-Atlantic flight.
Rodney Anderson and Pamela Brown, a couple who for four years had pursued the dream of completing the crossing, and Malcolm Brighton, a British balloon pilot, would vanish into the sky, and later the sea, in what would ultimately be a folly that would end their lives.
They came to Springs just looking for a flat, open space for the balloon launch, and found a community that rallied round and supported their cause. From Dorothy and Clarence Barnes, who provided sustenance from their Barnes Country Store, to members of theSprings artist and literary enclave, such as Willem de Kooning and Jean Stafford, Springs residents got taken up by the venture.
Members of the Springs Fire Department, a fledgling organization at the time — it will be celebrating its 50th anniversary with a parade on Saturday — volunteered on the balloon launch crew. Numerous locals were on the ground crew, including Genie Chipps Henderson, still a Springs resident, who was a girlhood friend of Ms. Brown.
Over 1,000 people turned out to cheer the launch, which was delayed several hours by winds. They ran up to shake hands with the three passengers who reached down from the gondola as the ropes tethering the balloon to earth were cut and the craft slowly took flight up and over Accabonac Harbor at about 1:40 p.m. It sailed out of sight, heading northeast for Europe.
Thirty hours later, the orange and white balloon went down in stormy seas off Newfoundland.
Despite an extensive search and rescue effort, none of the passengers was ever seen again — nor was any part of the balloon.
A year later, a more somber group gathered in Springs for a service to remember the lost balloonists at Ashawagh Hall, where a plaque was placed at the foot of a memorial tree. That tree itself was lost in a storm, taken down by Hurricane Bob in 1991. Another memorial tree was dedicated to the ill-fated adventurers in 1995.
Over the years, those who were there, as children or adults, have remembered the dramatic event — the excited hopefulness of the launch, followed by the sobering news of the Free Life’s disappearance.
On Sunday, the 45th anniversary of the day the Free Life launched from Springs, the Springs Historical Society and LTV have invited those who were there, or who have tales to tell about it, to gather at Ashawagh Hall at 4 p.m. A film made of the launch will be shown, news articles covering the event will be on display, and memories, it is hoped, will be shared.