Today was the 94th Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade! This year was very different due to Covid-19, but it is usually Mother Nature wreaking havoc on the parade plans. There has only been one year in history that the large character balloons were grounded due to the bad weather -- 1971. The balloons have occasionally come untethered, blown away, been punctured, stabbed or deflated. However, there were a few years when out-of-control balloons have actually resulted in injuries and several damaged balloons.
1997
The 1997 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is one of the most infamous Parades ever! Several balloons were either damaged or destroyed due to strong winds.
These intense winds caused the Cat in the Hat balloon to strike a lamppost, and part of the post crashed down on the head of a bystander. The woman suffered serious injuries and was in a coma for a month! One of the other balloons that suffered a sad fate was Barney the Dinosaur. You can see in the video below, gusty winds caused the balloon to violently blow about and eventually pop on a lamppost...
Following this "Great balloon Massacre", new safety measures were introduced in order to prevent future incidents. Starting in 1998, giant balloons would now be attached to utility tractors. Additionally, there was a strict size limit on balloons. This resulted in many of the balloons facing an early retirement.
2005
Only a few years later, another serious accident occurred. In 2005, The M&M's balloon went out of control, once again because of high winds and it popped on a streetlight in Times Square. A handling line got tangled in the light and dropped debris on two people and they suffered minor injuries. The balloon was grounded and removed from the parade.
This led to even more safety precautions being added to the parade. New protocol included wind measurement devices that would parade organizers of unsafe conditions. Additionally, balloons were kept closer to the ground on gusty days. Finally, balloons are not allowed to fly during very heavy rainfall, or when sustained winds exceed 23 MPH or gusts exceeding 34 mph.
