(RALEIGH) -- An incident in Georgia is calling attention to a lesser known form of skydiving. Edward Ristaino of Cornelius, North Carolina was piloting a balloon with five skydivers aboard which experienced rough weather. He was able to guide the skydivers to safe landing location, but he was killed.

Don Carrington of Raleigh is an experienced balloon skydiver and said the pilot has to make some tough choices in a hurry. "He had to decide whether I should land this thing, am I going to land it better with or without the skydivers.  If I let the skydivers out, my balloon is going to go up and where does that leave me, so he had a lot of decisions to make and from what I can tell, the interviews I've seen with the jumpers, he was pretty calm throughout the whole thing," said Carrington.

The skydivers said this week that they didn't realize the situation had become so dangerous but credited Ristaino with saving them.