As lightning illuminated the cloudy sky around him, hot air balloonist Ed Ristaino told his ground crew: “This is one we’re going to be talking about for a long time.”
Minutes later, the Cornelius man’s balloon was hovering more than three miles above south Georgia, when an accumulation of ice apparently caused it to collapse, one of his brothers says.
In an interview with the Observer Friday, Dominick Ristaino painted a vivid picture of his older brother’s last minutes inside the balloon before the March 16 crash.
After extensive conversations with the balloon’s ground crew members and with the authorities who investigated, he said he has pieced together much of what his brother did and said during his last ride.
Here’s his account:
The skies were blue around 6:40 p.m., when Ristaino and his balloon launched from the grounds of the Wild Chicken Festival in Fitzgerald, Ga.
Ristaino, 63, who lived in a home beside Lake Norman and had been ballooning since 1989, had a reputation for being a smart and cautious aviator. He had checked to make sure the weather would be clear for the ride, his brother said.
But about eight minutes into the ride, when the balloon had risen to about 1,500 feet, the storm appeared as a small dot on the radar.
Ristaino brought the balloon to a higher altitude where his passengers – five skydivers out for an evening’s adventure – could safely jump to a clearing below.
By the time the last of the divers had jumped, the storm had expanded rapidly. Ristaino radioed to his ground crew that he couldn’t see – and that he couldn’t extricate himself from the powerful storm currents.
I’m going higher, he said, apparently trying to get above the storm. I’m going to try to get topside.
But as he rose higher and higher, he found he could not escape the storm, his brother said.
At 16,000 feet, he said: I’ve got frost.
At 18,000 feet: My ropes are tangled. The balloon has deflated ... The balloon has collapsed.
“He never gave up”
Soon Ristaino and the balloon were plummeting at more than 45 miles per hour.
At 3,000 feet he reported that he couldn’t see anything – and was falling fast.
At 2,000 feet, he said: I see trees.
At 1,000 feet: I’m not going to make it. I’m sorry.
The balloon struck the branch of an oak tree before slamming into the ground in a heavily wooded area near a stream.
When search crews finally found the balloon three days later, Dominick was one of the first people on the scene.
His brother’s neck had been broken. His death, Dominick Ristaino said, appeared to have been immediate.
An igniter was still in Ristaino’s pocket – a sign, his brother says, that he likely tried to relight the balloon’s burner after the flame had been extinguished.
All the valves on the balloon’s propane tanks had been shut off. Dominick speculates that his brother closed the valves as the balloon plummeted because he wanted to prevent an explosion when it crashed.
At times of intense concentration – when, for instance, he’d been on the starting block for a race as a nationally ranked college swimmer – Ristaino would press his lips together with determination.
That was the expression the search crews found on his face Monday, Dominick Ristaino said.
“That was classic him,” said Dominick, 53, a Charlotte builder. “…He never gave up.”
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash, and has yet to determine its cause.
But inside Ristaino’s balloon, search crews found what his brother considers a major clue: chunks of ice the size of soccer balls. Dominick Ristaino believes those formed as his brother entered the cold upper altitudes.
That ice, he said, likely caused the balloon to collapse.
“He wouldn’t ask why”
Dominick Ristaino said that on his brother’s final flight, he followed the two most important rules of ballooning: He checked the weather and took care of his passengers.
Despite a passion for flying and skydiving, Ristaino wasn’t reckless, his brother said.
He said he’d seen his brother disappoint prospective balloon passengers by telling them that, because the weather was iffy, he’d have to cancel their champagne flights.
“If (the weather) was bad or had any remote chance of being bad, he didn’t go up,” Dominick Ristaino said.
Two of the skydivers who accompanied Ristaino on his last flight told the Observer that he saved their lives by maneuvering the balloon to a spot where they could land safely.
“Another minute, we would have been in the storm with him,” said Jessica Wesnofske, 30, one of the skydivers.
While flying was a favorite hobby, Ristaino spent much of his work life helping to save people’s lives in another realm.
He worked as a perfusionist, a medical professional who uses a heart-lung machine during cardiac surgery. He often worked with Dr. Chris Christy, a well-known heart surgeon, at CMC-NorthEast in Concord.
“He was the most giving and unquestioning person I’ve ever known,” Dominick Ristaino said. “You could ask him for help and he’d say yes. He wouldn’t ask you why.”
More Information
Remembering Edward Ristaino
Ristaino’s memory to be honored Sunday
A funeral service for Ed Ristaino will take place at 3 p.m. Sunday, in the Chapel of Raymer-Kepner Funeral Home in Huntersville. The family will receive friends from 1-3 p.m. before the service.
He’s survived by Ruth, his wife of 23 years; sons, Damien Ristaino of Charlotte and John Dominick “Nick” Ristaino of Naples, Fla.; brothers, John Ristaino and wife, Bernadette, of Borne, Texas, and Dominick Ristaino and wife, Pam, of Charlotte; sister, Evelyn Ristaino of Charlotte; two grandchildren, three nephews and two nieces.
Dominick Ristaino said the family wants to honor the people of southern Georgia, who worked for three days to find his brother’s body. In lieu of flowers the family asks that donations be sent to The People of Ben Hill County Georgia, c/o the Ed Ristaino Memorial Fund, Colony Bank of Fitzgerald, P.O. Box 1029, Fitzgerald, GA 31750.
Raymer-Kepner Funeral Home and Cremation Service, 16901 Old Statesville Road Huntersville, NC is helping the family. Friends may offer condolences to the family at www.raymerfh.com
Remembering Edward Ristaino
Ristaino’s memory to be honored Sunday
A funeral service for Ed Ristaino will take place at 3 p.m. Sunday, in the Chapel of Raymer-Kepner Funeral Home in Huntersville. The family will receive friends from 1-3 p.m. before the service.
He’s survived by Ruth, his wife of 23 years; sons, Damien Ristaino of Charlotte and John Dominick “Nick” Ristaino of Naples, Fla.; brothers, John Ristaino and wife, Bernadette, of Borne, Texas, and Dominick Ristaino and wife, Pam, of Charlotte; sister, Evelyn Ristaino of Charlotte; two grandchildren, three nephews and two nieces.
Dominick Ristaino said the family wants to honor the people of southern Georgia, who worked for three days to find his brother’s body. In lieu of flowers the family asks that donations be sent to The People of Ben Hill County Georgia, c/o the Ed Ristaino Memorial Fund, Colony Bank of Fitzgerald, P.O. Box 1029, Fitzgerald, GA 31750.
Raymer-Kepner Funeral Home and Cremation Service, 16901 Old Statesville Road Huntersville, NC is helping the family. Friends may offer condolences to the family at www.raymerfh.com
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com
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