The footage taken as the accident took place was awarded Best Domestic Newsreel Scene of the Year by the National Headliners Club:
>News photographer Al Mingalone was on assignment in Maine trying to get photos from a “balloonist’s point of view.”
>This involved using gas-filled weather balloons to lift him into the air.
>But with 27 balloons pulling him upwards, the safety line keeping him tethered to the ground snapped, sending him drifting across the countryside, towards the ocean.
>He floated 13 miles before a local Catholic priest, Rev. James J. Mullen, who happened to be a crack rifle shot, managed to shoot enough of the balloons to bring Mingalone back to the ground.
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The footage taken as the accident took place was awarded Best Domestic Newsreel Scene of the Year by the National Headliners Club:
>News photographer Al Mingalone was on assignment in Maine trying to get photos from a “balloonist’s point of view.”
>This involved using gas-filled weather balloons to lift him into the air.
>But with 27 balloons pulling him upwards, the safety line keeping him tethered to the ground snapped, sending him drifting across the countryside, towards the ocean.
>He floated 13 miles before a local Catholic priest, Rev. James J. Mullen, who happened to be a crack rifle shot, managed to shoot enough of the balloons to bring Mingalone back to the ground.
[Source](https://www.weirduniverse.net/blog/comments/priest_shoots_photographer_out_of_sky/)
Read a longer account of Mingalone’s flight [here](https://books.google.com/books?id=DqwLVaPdDgoC&lpg=PA76&ots=Sa_j6pyn2K&pg=PA76#v=onepage&q&f=false).