Hot air balloon makes emergency landing in downtown Santa Rosa

This hot air balloon made an emergency landing in the parking lot of a downtown Santa Rosa shopping mall on Thursday, June. 29, 2017. This hot air balloon made an emergency landing in the parking lot of a downtown Santa Rosa shopping mall on Thursday, June. 29, 2017. Photo: Courtesy Of Dexter Decanay / / Photo: Courtesy Of Dexter Decanay / / Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Hot air balloon makes emergency landing in downtown Santa Rosa 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

A hot air balloon made an emergency landing in a parking lot next to the Sears Auto Center in downtown Santa Rosa on Thursday morning, but the passengers appeared to be unharmed, witnesses said.

Dexter Dacanay, an employee of the Sears Auto Center, saw the balloon come down about 9:45 a.m., a spectacle that was alarming at first, he said.

“I started seeing a balloon coming down to the street, the intersection of Santa Rosa Plaza and First Street, and I was like, wait a minute — it looks like it’s going to do a crash landing in the road here,” Dacanay said.

People filtered into the street to watch the landing, and eventually two passengers and an operator could be seen disembarking the balloon, he said.

“A lot of people were coming out of the businesses and taking video, because obviously this is something out of the ordinary, for a balloon to make a landing in the middle of downtown,” Dacanay said.

Workers for the balloon operator arrived at the scene within 10 minutes of the landing to secure the balloon, he said.

“They didn’t really want to talk to anyone or give more information about what happened,” Dacanay added.

Santa Rosa Fire and police officials did not immediately respond to a request for more information on the cause of the crash.

Filipa Ioannou is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: fioannou@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @obioannoukenobi