A fire on a hot air balloon in Texas killed 16 people Saturday morning.
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But a spokesman at the scene, Erik Grosof, said teams from that agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were being dispatched to determine how the crash unfolded.
“It does not appear at this time that there were any survivors of the crash”, Caldwell County Sheriff Daniel Law said in a statement.
Fellow hot air balloon pilot, Philip Bryant, said he had known Nichols, CNN reported.
If 16 people were killed, it would be the one of the worst such disasters, possibly the worst in USA history.
Warning about potential high-fatality accidents, safety investigators recommended two years ago that the Federal Aviation Administration impose greater oversight on commercial hot air balloon operators, government documents show.
(Kin Man Hui/The San Antonio Express-News via AP) The partial frame of a hot air balloon is visible above a crop field as investigators comb the wreckage of a crash Saturday morning, July 30, 2016, near XXX, Texas. Corral says safety is their number one priority.
Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides is not accredited by the BBB and has a D+ rating.
While flying in a hot air balloon is always a delicate situation, Aamodt hopes people will still try. Eric Grosof, a spokesperson from the National Transportation Safety Board, said it was common in cases of aerial accidents for the FBI to assist in investigations. They are regulated by the FAA, which requires balloon pilots to be certified and for balloons to have air worthiness certificates.
Dean Carlton, president of the Balloon Federation of America, said accidents typically occur due to a variety of factors, including wind, weather and crashing into power lines. “I’d say it got as high up as those lower electric lines”. The site of the crash appears to be right below the overhead lines, though authorities have not provided further details about what happened.
Officials say a “significant investigation” will be done at the site of the Texas hot air balloon crash, which caused a “significant loss of life”.
– The FAA and the NTSB are investigating the Texas crash.
“Abbott said in a statement Saturday that he and his wife, Cecilia Abbott, “extend our deepest condolences” for those affected” by the “heartbreaking tragedy”.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families, as well as the Lockhart community”, he said in a statement. Authorities have not named any of the people on board.
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Lockhart is about 30 miles south of Austin.
