Investigators were unable to find its most recent maintenance logs and said it’s possible they might have burned up onboard.
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Kersten has been in the ballooning industry for three decades and uses a basket that he nicknamed Betty to take his passengers to new heights.
He explained the training and testing he’s been through over the years. A hot air balloon hit high-tension power lines on Saturday, July 30, 2016, before crashing into a pasture in Central Texas, killing all 16 on board, including Matt and Sunday Rowan.
The tragedy brings the number of deaths in USA balloon accidents since 2000 to 37, according to NTSB figures. The Associated Press reported that he also had a 1990 DWI conviction. The Texas secretary of state said the company never registered with state officials but that it did not necessarily have to. She says she has only been up in a hot air balloon once in her life.
Nichols, a resident of Kyle, owned Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides and was piloting the balloon when it crashed.
The NTSB said the operator of Heart of Texas Air Balloon Rides was involved in a crash past year but it involved a different balloon and a different pilot.
This photo provided by Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides shows Alfred “Skip” Nichols. “It won’t have a lot of impact, but we will have a lot of people coming out who heard about the accident and want to learn about what ballooning is all about”, he said.
Nichols was most recently released from prison in 2012 after serving almost two years on charges related to a 2007 drunken driving arrest and a parole violation related to a 1999 drug distribution charge, according to Missouri prison officials.
Sixteen minutes later, at 7:42 a.m., the balloon struck a transmission tower’s power lines, causing them to trip.
In 2013, Nichols and his company settled a personal-injury lawsuit filed by the passenger who said she got hurt after the crash landing near St. Louis.
The lawyer representing a former passenger that sued Nichols in 2013 said he “couldn’t drive a vehicle but he could pilot a hot-air balloon”.
Nichols also had a long history of customer complaints against his balloon tour companies in Missouri and IL dating back to 1997.
There was also a history of complaints against Nichols, for allegedly canceling flights and not providing refunds, the wire service reports.
Friends of Nichols told the media that he was a safe pilot who had never flown while drunk.
The Better Business Bureau issued a consumer alert in May against another Nichols company, Manchester Balloon Voyages, saying 11 complaints had been received since June 1999. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
As part of the case, Patton said he learned from the Missouri Department of Revenue that Nichols’ driver’s license had been suspended for 10 years due to the 2002 drunken-driving conviction.
Those investigations highlighted “operational deficiencies in commercial air tour balloon operations, such as operating in unfavorable wind conditions and failure to follow flight manual procedures”, Hersman’s letter said. However, when questioned under oath, Nichols reportedly testified that he brought the balloon down because it was drifting toward power lines.
Rowan said his entire family is devastated and in disbelief but not pointing fingers.
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A Missouri police officer, though, told the AP that Nichols was arrested there in 2000 on a felony driving-while-intoxicated charge.
