An accident occurred prior to the performance of a hydrogen-oxygen balloon demonstration, seriously injuring the demonstrator, who suffered painful second-degree burns to his right forearm and had to be taken to the hospital. The paramedics feared that grave respiratory damage (due to flame inhalation) might have occurred.To prepare for the demonstration, the demonstrator had transported 15 balloons (pre-filled with a hydrogen-oxygen gas mixture) in a large, black polyethylene garbage bag. During the demonstration set-up he opened the bag to remove a single balloon for stringing and floating.

A Worner 1000 STU gas balloon, of German registry D-OAGH, piloted by a commercial pilot was substantially damaged during landing, when the hydrogen-filled envelope came in contact with a power line, caught fire, and burned. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. The balloon was a participant in a racing event associated with the annual Albuquerque Balloon Festival and was being operated under the provisions of 14 CFR Part 91 without a flight plan. The pilot and copilot reported no injuries.

Hydrogen ignition during the (illegal) filling of a balloon.Two men had decided to fill in a weather balloon with hydrogen in a storeroom located in the basement of a block of flats. Their idea was to attach a video camera to the balloon for the purpose of taking aerial photos. To fill in the balloon, the men had purchased a 20 kg hydrogen bottle and a valve and constructed a special mouthpiece for the purpose. They had tried filling a similar balloon previously. Then, they did not experience any problems in filling the balloon and had left the balloon in the basement to let it empty.

The balloon had a 3.5m external diameter envelope made of anti-tear fabric (same techniques used in full sized balloons of the same company). The inner balloon was a meteorological balloon made of latex. When starting filling the inner balloon with hydrogen (final full balloon relative pressure of 0.03 bar) a leak was noticed, due to a small rupture in the skin of the latex balloon.The filling process was stopped but by this time some hydrogen had become trapped between the inner latex balloon and the outer fabric envelope.

A cylinder filled with hydrogen exploded. Hydrogen is used to blow up balloons

A case under negligent act causing life danger was booked against the absconding balloon seller, Panic gripped the locality, bomb disposal squads, sniffer dogs and clues teams were rushed to the spot to ascertain the nature of the blast.

A number of hydrogen-filled balloons burst into flames at a secondary school. About 1,500 small balloons to be used for the opening ceremony of a sport event exploded unexpectedly and caught fire at around 9:00 am on Sunday.

As the airship approached the docking mast, it performed a sharp turn to face into the wind, which was shifting. The engines were run at full speed astern for about a minute to slow the airship. Dust came from the lines as they dropped to the ground, but the lines wetted in the light rain. Only the port line had been attached to a ground winch used for drawing the airship down to ground level for disembarking passengers and cargo. The starboard line was being handled by ground crew at the time of the fire. The nose cable had been lowered about 50 ft.