A California couple received the surprise of their lives on Saturday when a hot air balloon carrying more than a dozen people crash landed in their backyard.

Hunter Perrin told KABC he was watching television at his home in Temecula, California at around 8.30am when a neighbor knocked on his door.

‘I go and answer the door. This guy’s like, “They just landed in your backyard!”‘ And I’m like, “What?!”‘

Hunter and his wife, Jenna, who was in another room doing yoga at the time, then ran outside to see what happened.

‘I open the sliding glass door and there’s a basket full of 13 people in my backyard,’ Hunter recounted.

‘The pilot, he was masterful. He got it right down inside, like directly onto the backyard, where there was nothing,’ he noted. ‘The balloon didn’t catch on anything. No one was injured.’

Surveillance footage from the scene later revealed how the pilot of the hot air balloon managed to steer the basket straight on the lawn – right in between the couple’s raised garden and their patio, narrowly avoiding a fence and their neighbor’s trees.

‘No, no, no not into the fence,’ someone onboard could be heard saying, as another screamed out – ‘We’re in somebody’s backyard.’

The hot air balloon made an emergency landing in a California couple’s backyard, leading bystanders to gawk as it was lifted up and over the house

Hunter and Jenna Perrin were shocked to find more than a dozen passengers standing in the basket of a hot air balloon in their backyard on Saturday

By the time the couple ran outside, they found more than a dozen people standing inside the basket and waving back at them.

The pilot then explained to the couple that he was forced to make an emergency landing because the wind had died down and the hot air balloon was almost out of fuel.

‘He was trying to get us to the street, but we couldn’t get to the street in time, so we landed in the people’s backyard safe and sound, like no one’s hurt, everyone’s great,’ said passenger Brianna Avalos, who was celebrating her 10th wedding anniversary with her husband by taking a hot air balloon ride.

‘He was an amazing pilot,’ she noted. 

Meanwhile, one resident told KTLA he was awoken by the sounds of neighbors screaming, and soon neighbors lined the street to watch as the pilot tried to get the balloon back in the air. 

‘It was such a wild thing,’ Hunter said.

‘All the neighbors came out. They were looking at our house because you could see the balloon so clearly over the house,’ he said, with some likening their suburban home to the house in the Pixar film ‘Up!’

With a lot of maneuvering, the pilot was able to safely move the hot air balloon

He and others managed to get it to land safely on the street, where it had more room

Crews deflated the balloon before it was placed on a transport truck

Eventually, neighbors said, more propane was delivered and the pilot was able to move the balloon out of the backyard and onto the street for more space.

Footage from the scene showed bystanders grabbing a drop line tethered to the basket as they worked to safely redirect it as it passed over the house as residents cheered and clapped.

From there, crews were seen deflating the balloon, and asking residents to move their vehicles from the street as the balloon went down.

Finally, after about two hours, the crews were able to get the balloon onto a transport truck, according to NBC Los Angeles.  

One resident who has been living in the neighborhood for more than 20 years said that while she often sees hot air balloons soaring over her home as they pass into wine country, she has never witnessed anything like the emergency landing. 

‘We’re just happy that everyone was safe,’ Hunter said. ‘It’s just such a whimsical story.’