On September 16, 1979, two East German families successfully escaped to West Germany using a hot air balloon. This MOC depicts the balloon as it flew over the East German border. While the rest of the MOC is made to minifig scale, the balloon and the microfigs attached to it (along with the height of the balloon) are sized down to better show how high the families were when they flew over the border (8,000 feet). The story of their successful escape is told in two excellent movies: Disney’s “Night Crossing” (1982) and a German foreign film, “Balloon” (2018). Both movies do a very good job in capturing the high-wire act both families went through to deceive their neighbors and ultimately elude detection and capture by the East German secret police, the Stasi.
