A HOT air balloon which crashed in to a house in Essex was "travelling too fast to stop" according to a report released by air crash investigators.

The balloon attempted to land in a field near Little Sampford on April 30 2019 before being dragged across the field and in to a nearby house.

Fortunately no one was injured in the crash as the balloon was carrying, 14 passengers and a pilot at the time.

The balloon set off at 6.25pm and stayed in flight for around 40 minutes when concerns over fuel levels and fading light made the pilot begin to search for a safe landing zone.

A report in to the crash released by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAID) detailed the event of the crash.

In their report, the AAIB said: "The pilot was concerned about the fuel situation.

"All the front tanks were empty and of the two 80 litres rear tanks, one was indicating 20% and the other was not yet indicating its contents but had been used extensively.

"The pilot was also concerned about losing light; sunset was at 2021 hrs BST."

The pilot managed to find a suitable grass field to land in, just 500m away from the intended landing site attempted to land the balloon at around 8.05pm.

While coming in to land, the pilot deployed the balloon's rapid deflation system.

Believing there to be enough landing distance, the manoeuvre took a turn for the worst when the balloon didn't stop as intended and was helplessly dragged along the field.

The balloon soon reached a nearby house where, just before hitting a tree, the balloon stopped and draped itself over the house, causing damage.

It is believed that the balloons rapid deflation system, which helps the balloon stop, malfunctioned and didn't deploy properly.

The report also states that the balloon was travelling too fast to stop in time.

The AAIB report concluded: "The balloon dragged for a longer distance than the pilot expected after landing and stopped too close to a house because it was travelling too fast to stop in the space available and the rapid deflation system may not have operated to its full extent."

For further details about the incident, you can read the AAIB's full report at bit.ly/AAIBReport.