Texas hot air balloon crashes, killing all 16 people on board
Up to 16 people are dead after a large hot air balloon caught fire after colliding with power lines and crashed in central Texas on Saturday.
"First I heard a whoosh," nearby resident Margaret Wylie told CNN.
"And then a big ball of fire (went) up. I'd say it got as high up as those lower electric lines."
Caldwell County Judge Ken Schawe said it appeared the balloon had struck the power lines before crashing into the field. The Caldwell County sheriff's office has not confirmed this theory.
Pilot Skip Nichols. Source: Facebook
The pilot has been identified as Skip Nichols, a fellow flyer describing him as "a safe, competent pilot".
"I knew him to be a safe, competent pilot... He has done this for a very long time," balloonist Philip Bryant told CNN.
"I don't know what would distract a pilot from seeing what was in front of him, but in this case that's apparently what happened."
The balloon as advertised online. Source: Groupon
The pilot said he was also informed the balloon hit the power lines before the crash.
The accident took place shortly after 7:40am local time, when the balloon crashed into a field near Lockhart, around 50 kilometres south of Austin, Lynn Lunsford of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement.
"It does not appear at this time that there were any survivors of the crash," the Caldwell County sheriff's office said.
Caldwell County Sheriff's Deputy Sean Quinn rolls out crime scene tape to secure the area. Source: AP
Texas DPS Trooper Robbie Barrera, center right, puts her arm around Caldwell County Sheriff Daniel Law as he arrives on the scene. Source: AP
"When the Emergency Responders and the Sheriff's Office arrived on the scene, it was apparent that the reported fire was the basket portion of a hot air balloon," it added in a statement posted on Twitter.
FAA investigators were on their way to the site, Lunsford said, with the National Transportation Safety Board taking charge of the probe.
NTSB lead investigator Erik Grosof did not confirm the number of deaths or injuries, telling reporters earlier only that "right now we have a number of fatalities."
Investigators surround the scene in a field near Lockhart, Texas where a hot air balloon crashed and killed all 16 people on board. Source: AP
Texas Governor Greg Abbott offered condolences to those affected by the crash.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families, as well as the Lockhart community," he said in a statement.
A photo posted on social media apparently depicting the accident showed a balloon in the air with huge flames spurting underneath.
Local resident Margaret Wylie describes a burst of flames she saw in the field across the road from her house. Source: AP
Investigators at the scene. Source: AP
If all 16 fatalities are confirmed, the crash would be the deadliest US hot air balloon accident on record, according to the NTSB. Previously, the highest number of fatalities in a single hot air balloon crash was six.
Hot air balloon crashes are rare in the United States. The NTSB investigated 760 such accidents between 1964 and 2013. Of those, 67 were fatal.
Three people died in May 2014 during an air balloon festival in Virginia when a balloon hit a power line and burst into flames while landing.
The partial frame of a hot air balloon is visible above a crop field as investigators comb the wreckage. Source: AP
Investigators at the scene of the crash in a crop field near Austin, Texas. Source: AP
Hot air balloons use propane gas to heat air that keeps them afloat. They are regulated by the FAA, which requires balloon pilots to be certified and for balloons to have air worthiness certificates.
The FAA inspects the balloons used for commercial ventures after 100 hours of flight time or at least once a year.
