WATCH: Surfers save couple after dramatic proposal goes awry aboard plummeting hot air balloon

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – It was an incredibly dramatic engagement proposal near San Diego at sunset Sunday night.

But it wasn't just what the would-be groom said to his soon-to-be bride.

Instead it's what happened moments after he popped the question when the hot air balloon they were riding in began to plummet from the sky right toward the Pacific Ocean.

FOX5 in San Diego reported that the balloon was hovering over coastal homes in Cardiff around 6:30 p.m. after experiencing altitude issues, according to Encinitas lifeguard Capt. Larry Giles.

Then, the wind shifted, taking the balloon offshore.

The pilot dropped the balloon’s messenger line down to surfers in the water and who helped pull the hot air balloon to the water, preventing it from blowing farther offshore until lifeguards arrived, Giles said. One of the passengers didn’t know how to swim and was the first to be rescued by lifeguards.

Before the balloon started having problems, the man aboard the balloon proposed to his girlfriend, according the lifeguard captain.

Lifeguards towed the hot air balloon, pilot and newly engaged couple to shore.

“Yeah this is pretty crazy. It was pretty wild. We just talked to hot air balloon people. They’re really great people. They take safety very seriously, and for whatever reason, the atmosphere conditions changed and took them over the water,” Mark Burnz, with Burnz Eye View, said. He was one of many witnesses to the emergency landing and captured the rescue on video, which he shared with FOX5.

Giles said the last time lifeguards came to the rescue of a hot air balloon was 14 years ago.