Man been carried 300 km away by a hydrogen balloon finally gets rescued 2 days later. Screenshot of CCTV News

The worker who was taken away by a hydrogen balloon when collecting pinecones was rescued in a forest that is 300 kilometers away from the accident site in Hailin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on Tuesday. The worker is currently in a good condition and under treatment in hospital, and he expressed his great gratitude to the rescuers. 

The worker surnamed Hu and his fellow worker were taking a hydrogen balloon to harvest pine nuts on Sunday when the hydrogen balloon suddenly went out of control and lifted them into the air. Hu's fellow worker was able to jump out of the balloon's gondola, but Hu was taken away by the hydrogen balloon and temporarily lost contact with the ground as he was in the mountain area.

The employees of a local company, firefighters, police, and professional rescuers immediately formed a rescue team with more than 500 people to carry on a relay-style comprehensive rescue.

Finally, the man successfully landed in the forest area of Fangzheng county and he was blocked by a tree there when landing.

Meng Qingchun, a member of the rescue team, told Beijing Youth Daily that the rescue process was extremely difficult. "It was raining heavily in the dark forest, which was really hard for us to see anything clearly," said Meng.

Given the low temperature and the soggy ground in the forest, every rescue team member was extremely exhausted after continuously searching for 10 hours of over 900 hectares. "I almost gave up," said Hu. "But thanks to the rescuers, otherwise, I wouldn't be alive."

Netizens felt sympathetic to Hu's experience and admired his courage and ability to survive in the wild. Others praised the rescuers' hard work as they spared no effort to do their job and successfully saved Hu's life.