Peak Canberra alert - a hot-air balloon landed on Parkes Way on Friday morning during peak-hour traffic.
ACT Policing said they received a call at 8.20am that a hot-air balloon was likely to land in the area.
Officers were sent out to help with traffic management; westbound lanes closed while the balloon landed and deflated and was cleared away.
A short time later, the pilot apologised to anybody inconvenienced by what he called a "serene land".
The balloon with pilot Craig Farrell and three passengers took off from Lennox Gardens on Lake Burley Griffin about 7am.
But as they planned to fly past Black Mountain tower, they found the wind speed was much less than they had expected and decided to land safely.
"The wind was a lot slower than when we took off," Mr Farrell who has been ballooning for 37 years said.
"We took the most safe option," he said.
He said they landed on the verge beside Parkes Way but the traffic was stopped out of safety. "We had the excellent help of a couple of nice police officers," the balloonist said.
The "serene land" was at a downward speed of 5 feet a minute and a horizontal speed of about 1 km/h (less than walking pace).
"We wouldn't have cracked an egg in terms of vertical velocity," he said.
An ACT Policing spokesman said traffic was disrupted for "about 10 minutes".
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