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Our story last Saturday said the launch of the first hot air balloon was completed with a tour of Colombo city. Not quite. It was a tethered flight. Captain Anil Jayasinghe, who pioneered the project, said, “We have not yet received permission to fly over the city of Colombo. We are only doing tethered flights at the moment.” In a tethered flight, Jayasinghe explained, “We are attached to three points at a height of about 40 feet.” Tethered flights are mostly used for advertising purposes. Director General of the Department of Civil Aviation, Lal Liyanarachchi expressing full support for the project said that they have not yet received a request for free flight. When asked whether there would be any problems with free flying of the hot air balloon within Colombo city he said, “I don’t see any technical problems.” Liyanarachchi went on to say he believes there is a “superb market for hot air balloons” in Sri Lanka and “the future for them in Sri Lanka is immense.” The Commander of the Sri Lanka Air Force, Jayalath Weerakkody expressed reservations about flying the hot air balloon in populated areas without prior testing. He said, “It depends on the limitations. We want to know what the possible dangers and limitations are.” Weerakkody did answer in the negative when asked whether the Air Force had any opposition to hot air balloons in Sri Lanka. It wasn’t a flight of fancy on our part but a genuine error for which we apologise. The picture, which lent even more credibility than the story, was a computer simulation.
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