The pilot at the time of the crash was Alfred “Skip” Nichols, 49, who was also the owner and operator of Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides.
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Lirette said he helped load the other 15 passengers into the basket of the hot air balloon, called the “gondola”.
Robert Sumwalt, who will head the NTSB’s crash investigation team, said he was studying the board’s recommendations to the FAA based on previous hot air balloon crashes.
From 1964 to 2013, the NTSB investigated 760 hot air balloon accidents in the United States, 67 of them fatal.
A family friend says Matt and Sunday Rowan were on the flight.
Rowan was also a stepfather, and he and Sunday had bought a house together in San Antonio, Joshua said.
“As always, Texans are strong in the face of adversity, and we all stand together in support of the families and entire Lockhart community as they respond to and begin to heal from this bad incident”, Cruz said in a statement. In the decade between 2002-2012, NTSB data shows the 16 is the total number of people died in hot air balloon accidents in the U.S.
Aerial television footage showed remnants of the red, white and blue balloon, adorned with a large, yellow smiley face wearing sunglasses, lying flattened at the crash site.
In the wake of Saturday’s accident, the deadliest balloon accident on record in the U.S., Sumwalt said the NTSB suggests greater oversight of the Federal Aviation Administration. The full go team from the NTSB landed in Austin Sunday morning after a flight delay in Washington D.C. and then made its way to the crash site.
Records indicate that the apparent pilot of the hot air balloon that crashed in Central Texas and killed 16 was federally certified to fly balloons. The rating is limited to hot-air balloons with an airborne heater.
This is the deadliest balloon accident on record in the US. Officials have not confirmed whether or not the lines were a factor in the crash. “There’s going to be all kinds of reports out in the press and I want a positive image there too”.
16 people sadly lost their lives after a hot air balloon crashed in central Texas.
Authorities have not yet identified the company that operated the balloon or named any of the victims.
Philip Bryant, a balloon pilot, told CNN he knew the pilot of the balloon that crashed.
Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides responded to the complaint, citing weather and their terms that customers agree to when they sign up for a flight.
Robert Sumwalt, a member of the NTSB, told the newspaper investigators are looking into the cause of the crash.
NTSB spokesman Robert Sumwalt told CNN on Sunday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has found 14 personal electronic devices from those aboard the crashed balloon, including cellphones, three cameras and an iPad.
Warning about potential high-fatality accidents, safety investigators recommended two years ago that US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) should impose greater oversight on commercial hot air balloon operators.
In a letter to FAA Administrator Michael Huerta in April 2014, the National Transportation Safety Board urged the FAA to require tour companies to get agency permission to operate, and to make balloon operators subject to FAA safety inspections.
FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford said it is hard to say whether the Texas crash will cause the agency to reconsider the NTSB’s recommendations “until we’ve had a chance to gather and examine the evidence in this particular case”.
Law enforcement officers responded to a 911 call at 7:44 a.m. (8:44 a.m. ET) about a possible auto accident in the Maxwell area, according to a statement on the Caldwell County Office of Emergency Management’s Facebook page.
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It’s also unclear whether the fire that broke out on the balloon happened before or after it hit the power lines, Sumwalt said.
