Atlanta ( CNN ) -- A search-and-rescue team on Monday found the body of a missing hot air balloonist who had crashed in Georgia three days earlier . Acting on a tip from a witness who saw an object falling Friday , authorities dispatched a helicopter in the direction she described and quickly found the body of Ed Ristaino of North Carolina , according to Ben Hill County Sheriff Bobby McLemore . `` We were relieved that we found him , '' McLemore said . `` But that still leaves recovery . '' Teams made up of state patrol officers , forestry units , neighboring sheriff 's department personnel and volunteers scoured areas east of Fitzgerald in south-central Georgia , where the balloon basket went down . At least seven helicopters and planes and more than 100 people on the ground participated in the difficult search , McLemore said . Ristaino had taken five skydivers up in his hot air balloon around 6:45 p.m. Friday when he noticed the wind picking up and realized he was driving the balloon toward a large incoming storm system , McLemore said . `` The storm was pulling the balloon closer towards it , so he asked the skydivers to bail out . He had them jump from about 5,000 feet . '' While the five skydivers landed safely and were picked up , Ristaino and the balloon continued heading southeast and rose another 2,000 feet , McLemore said . `` He went up into the clouds and had radio contact with his ground crew and told them it was hailing on him , there was lightning and rain and heavy wind , '' he said . An updraft carried Ristaino up to about 17,000 or 18,000 feet above ground before a downdraft collapsed the balloon and sent him plummeting . Ristaino stayed calm and talked to his ground crew on the radio the entire time he was falling . `` I 'm in trouble . I 'm falling . I do n't have anything above my head , '' McLemore recalled from accounts told to him . The balloonist said he was falling at 2,000 feet per minute , but an altimeter reading says he may have been falling as quickly as 60 to 90 mph , McLemore said . `` As he was falling , he did a countdown . He could n't see anything because he was in the clouds . But when he broke through the clouds , he said , ' I see trees , ' and that 's the last thing they heard . '' A friend of Ristaino 's called him an `` accomplished balloon pilot '' who had logged `` many hours of safe balloon operation . '' `` He was very much a gentleman and it does n't surprise me at all that he managed the situation and had his skydiver passengers get out of the balloon for their own safety , '' said Bob Tettman , a fellow balloon pilot . CNN 's Nicole Parks contributed to this report .
NEW : Ristaino was an `` accomplished balloon pilot , '' friend and fellow balloonist says . Ed Ristaino 's body was found Friday , the Ben Hill County sheriff says . He went missing Monday after his hot air balloon was pulled into a storm . more than 100 skydivers who went up with him jumped and are safe .