According to the newspaper Gazeta Lubuska, the tragedy, which was caught by a witness on a mobile phone, happened on Monday shortly before eight o’clock in the morning. The balloon took off from the airport of the local aero club.
He was in the air for about an hour and a half, when he suddenly began to rapidly descend directly into the urban area for unknown reasons. At one point, he hit a chimney, after which one of the women, Jagoda Gancareková, a member of the aero club and a balloon pilot, fell out of the basket onto the roof of the house and died.
❗️| Tragic accident in Zielona Góra. The passenger balloon hit a 30-meter-high building and then fell in the center of the city, not far from the station.
There were trzy persons in the basket. One of the passengers fell from the balloon onto the roof of the building. In addition to the rescue action taken, nie poudlo się… pic.twitter.com/oXjeyReKQw
— 🌐 ᴛʜᴇᴘᴏʟᴀɴᴅɴᴇᴡs 🌐 (@thepolandnews_) March 9, 2026
“The rescuers revived her, but it was not possible to save her,” confirmed the spokesperson of the city police, Małgorzata Stanisławska.
The balloon with the remaining two women eventually landed hard on the street, where it crashed into a bus. According to witnesses, he moderated the fall of the balloon and apparently prevented an even greater tragedy. The two remaining women got out of the basket on their own, but the ambulances took them to the hospital.
At the point of impact of the balloon, whose textile part got caught in a tree, all components of the rescue system intervened. The police temporarily closed the area. The cause of the accident is being investigated by the State Commission for the Investigation of Air Accidents.
The Aeroklub said that Gancareková worked as an aviation instructor and also flew firefighting planes. “As a result of the accident, a talented young but already experienced pilot died,” the club said, adding that Jagoda won the title of national champion in balloon flying last year.
