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The word 'crashes' could easily be substituted with 'drifted into'.

Dropping at 2000 feet per minute is not quite free fall, but it's a long way from a drifting dandelion seed. I wonder if the balloon payload left a crater.

At 22 MPH? Probably not considering it has to be light enough to be a balloon payload in the first place.

I've launched a handful of latex weather balloons to near-space. They all descend on a parachute and have a target impact velocity of ~2000 feet per minute. None have made so much as a dent in the earth so far.

I believe you. :)

I have no experience with balloons at all, but even a plowed field feels like a sidewalk to me when I run into it at the same speed under canopy. I leave a sizable mark, and I have seen friends break femurs, pelvises, etc at the end of a similar descent.

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