Authorities would not confirm the exact number of deaths in Saturday’s crash, but Lynn Lunsford with the Federal Aviation Administration said the balloon was carrying at least 16 people.
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An NTSB Go Team from Washington D.C.is making their way to Lockhart, Texas Sunday where they will fan out and begin a thorough investigation into Saturday’s hot air balloon accident that killed 16.
LOCKHART, Texas (AP) – A hot air balloon made contact with high-tension power lines before crashing into a pasture in Central Texas, killing all 16 on board, according to federal authorities who are investigating the worst such disaster in USA history.
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. Cutting through that farmland is a row of massive high-capacity electrical transmission lines about 4 to 5 stories tall. That record had been six people who died in August 1993 in Woody Creek, Colorado, when a wind gust blew a balloon into a power line complex and severed the basket from the balloon.
Hersman added, “Unfortunately in aviation, they say that the lessons are often written in blood, and it takes more than one event for an action to occur”.
Lirette, who helped load the passengers into the gondola, told CNN that 16 people – 15 passengers and Nichols – were aboard when it went down.
The pilot in the crash was also identified on Sunday.
Matt Rowan and his wife, Sunday Rowan, were among those on board the hot air balloon.
“I looked around and it was like a fireball going up”, she said, noting that the fireball was under large power lines and nearly high enough to reach the bottom of them. “They made a difference in so many people’s lives”, he said.
The operation does not appear to be registered with the state of Texas.
Bryant said flying balloons in Texas can be problematic since hot temperatures create rising moisture in the air, meaning it’s only possible to fly for about two hours after sunrise. The rating is limited to hot air balloons with an airborne heater.
Missouri records list Nichols as the owner of Air Balloon Sports LLC, based out of the same Chesterfield address as the FAA record. Lirette said there didn’t appear to be any children on board. Speaking to the AP from a house he shared with Nichols in Kyle, Lirette would not answer specific questions about the balloon’s launch or its crash. “There’s going to be all kinds of reports out in the press and I want a positive image there too”.
Skip Nichols identifies himself on his Facebook page as the chief pilot of Heart of Texas and pictures posted by him are on the business’ Facebook page. He was Alfred “Skip” Nichols, said Alan Lirette, the ground crew supervisor for Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides. The investigation will include the balloon’s maintenance history and the weather at the time of the crash.
He said they would look at “the operation of the balloon, the pilot, [and] the company that operated the balloon”.
NTSB investigators are looking for any cellphone footage of the aircraft’s flight from witnesses and will search for devices in the wreckage that may have recoverable video.
“First I heard a whoosh”, Margaret Wylie, who lives near the crash site, told CNN affiliate TWC.
The FAA rejected those recommendations, Sumwalt said, and the NTSB classified the FAA’s response as “open-unacceptable”.
FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford said it’s hard to say whether the Texas crash will cause the agency to reconsider NTSB’s recommendations “until we’ve had a chance to gather and examine the evidence in this particular case”.
“Yesterday, the beloved mother of my daughter, Paige Brabson and her mother, Lorilee Brabson, both passed away in a tragic hot air balloon accident”, Monterrosa wrote.
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The deadliest hot air balloon crash took place in Luxor, Egypt, on February 26, 2013.
