Details have emerged about pilot and the company involved in the hot air balloon crash that killed at least 16 people Saturday morning in Central Texas.
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NTSB member Robert Sumwalt said the immediate focus of the investigation would be gathering witness testimony, starting with the ground crew on Monday. The crash site was near a row of high-tension power lines, and aerial photos showed an area of scorched land underneath.
“There is physical evidence to indicate that the balloon, or some component of the balloon, hit the physical wires themselves and not the tower”, Sumwalt said.
The NTSB recommendations would have created a database of commercial users but not necessarily made pilots any safer.
Matt Rowan’s brother, Josh Rowan, told The Associated Press on Sunday: “It’s a bit haunting now but I guess it was a bit of a play-by-play”.
The accident was the deadliest hot air balloon crash in US history. Nichols’ Facebook page identifies himself as the chief pilot of that business, which does not appear to be registered with the state of Texas.
Sumwalt said the passengers met the balloon operator in the San Marcos Wal-Mart parking lot at about 5:45 a.m. Saturday, and traveled to Fentress Texas Airpark. The basket was found about three-quarters of a mile from the balloon material itself. One man, who identified himself on Facebook as the father of Paige Brabson’s young daughter, called the balloon crash a tragedy. The balloon’s pilot, Alfred “Skip” Nichols, was also killed during the incident.
The FAA is responsible for regulating the hot air balloons, but in the 2014 letter, then-NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman pointed out that balloon operators do not face the same requirements as commercial plane and helicopter operators, including maintaining a letter of authorization, or LOA, which triggers periodic surveillance checks to ensure flights are being conducted properly.
Nichols also had a long history of customer complaints against his balloon tour companies in Missouri and IL dating back to 1997.
A Missouri police officer, though, told The Associated Press that Nichols was arrested there in 2000 on a felony driving while intoxicated charge.
“All of us were sort of calling them and texting them and messaging them and just trying to get anything back and just sort of time went on and we didn’t hear anything back”, Rowan said, noting that authorities later told the family his brother and sister-in-law were aboard the balloon.
Alan Lirette, an employee at Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides, said Nichols was a great pilot.
Between late 1998 and 2001, the Better Business Bureau said it had received more than three dozen complaints against Nichols’ Manchester Balloon Voyages, leading it to twice warn the public about the company. The paper quoted the BBB as saying that Nichols was on probation in Missouri for distribution, delivery or manufacturing a controlled substance.
January 31, 1996: Five people died in the Bernese Alps, Switzerland, when their hot air balloon crashed into a mountainside at a height of 8,000 feet (2,400 meters).
A former girlfriend described Alfred “Skip” Nichols as a recovering alcoholic. “There’s going to be all kinds of reports out in the press, and I want a positive image there too”.
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Missouri court records also show that Nichols settled a personal injury lawsuit in 2013 that was filed by one of eight passengers in his balloon that crash-landed in suburban St. Louis. The passenger said she was hurt when Nichols crash-landed a balloon in the St. Louis suburbs. The manufacturer of Nichols’ balloon mandates an annual inspection, he said, adding that he couldn’t do it this year but believes Nichols took it to another inspector. He noted that the ballooning certificate specifically says not to include alcohol offenses involving a motor vehicle, as those are covered on the FAA’s medical application.
