Ballonists rescued by De Beers

Balloonist rescued by Victor Mine WATCH: The emergency response team at De Beers Victor Mine in Attawapiskat was called to help two hot-air balloonists.

SUDBURY – The emergency response team at De Beers Victor Mine in Attawapiskat was called by the Canadian Military to help two balloonists who wound up landing 100 km away from the mine.

They were in a race from New Mexico to Minnesota.

A De Beers helicopter picked up the stranded competitors and sent them to Timmins.

"They put themselves in a pretty dangerous place. It's October, the conditions can be very severe where we are, and they're very fortunate that there was no bad weather, and also that they didn't land in any wildlife areas that could have been a concern," said Tom Ormsby, De Beers Group.

Two other balloonists from that race had to make a forced landing near Atikokan and were also rescued.