Investigators will scrutinize the company that operated the balloon and the pilot, neither of which have been publicly identified.
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Parishioners keep asking, “What can we do to help”, said Pastor Caleb Jeffers after Sunday morning’s service which included prayers for the families, emergency responders and all those touched by the hot air balloon crash.
All 16 people aboard the balloon – 15 passengers and the pilot – were killed in Saturday’s crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s Robert Sumwalt said he is hoping the investigators will be able to gather some information from the cell phones found among the wreckage. He noted they’ll be looking at “three things – human, machine and environment”.
From 1964 to May 2014, the NTSB had investigated 775 balloon incidents in the USA, 70 involving fatalities. Driscoll said it makes sense that the wire contact would be a concern for investigators, wires and towers can be problematic for balloon pilots. Nichols was the chief pilot for Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides in New Braunfels.
Cook said he often sees hot air balloons flying overheard when he’s in Maxwell. They’ll also be reviewing any video shot by witnesses. The rating is limited to hot air balloons with an airborne heater.
The names of the passengers have not been officially released, but friends and family of Paige Brabson and her mother, Lorilee Brabson, said the two women were among the dead. Deborah Hersman felt that should change because hot air balloons use heated propane gas to float in the air.
That makes it one of the worst hot air balloon crashes in US history.
“It’s bad enough when you’ve got one or two (people) in the basket”. While Saturday’s tragedy was horrific, the biggest hot air balloon accident occurred February 26, 2013, in Luxor Egypt when 19 tourists died after the balloon caught fire and plunged 1,000 feet to the ground, reports the Daily Mail.
Sunday Rowan bought the balloon flight for her husband as a birthday gift a year ago and it had taken them a while to schedule it, Jones said. He said several passengers seemed to be related. Knowing they had booked the weekend balloon trip, family members traveled to a Wal-Mart in San Marcos and found the couple’s vehicle.
Cutting through that farmland is a row of massive high-capacity electrical transmission lines about 4 to 5 stories tall.
The balloon burst into flames and plummeted to earth soon after dawn outside the town of Lockhart, some 30 miles (50 kilometres) south of Austin, the FAA said in a statement. It is still unclear what caused the crash, but a witness named Margaret Wylie said she heard a “pop” noise that caught her attention, followed by a fireball.
“I looked around and it was like a fireball going up”, she said, noting the fireball was under large power lines and nearly high enough to reach the bottom of them. No one answered the door at a home in Kyle, Texas, believed to be his.
Austin resident Steve Brudniak told KEYE-TV he had ridden twice with the operation in May.
He says, “They were really happy and they were in love and they were really starting a life together”.
“Since the amount of ballooning is so low, the FAA believes the risk posed to all pilots and participants is also low given that ballooners understand the risks and general hazards associated with this activity”, Huerta responded last November.
There were reports of foggy weather in the area around the time of the flight.
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Two years ago the NTSB called for better regulation of hot air balloon flights in the USA, recommending they should be subject to the same oversight as tour planes and helicopters.
