This appears to be the worst hot air balloon disaster since a 2013 crash in Luxor, Egypt that left 19 foreign tourists dead.
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The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the crash about 50 km south of Austin and did not offer any information on fatalities.
The Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office said 16 people were believed to have been aboard the balloon and that there were no survivors. People who buy plane tickets have their names on record, while people can just walk up, buy a ticket to ride on a hot air balloon, and not have their names recorded.
Initial indications were that the balloon caught fire in mid-air, hit high-voltage power lines and fell to the ground.
Two officials familiar with the investigation into the crash in Texas of a hot air balloon carrying at least 16 people say it was operated by Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides.
WASHINGTON – 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. “At 66, that’s not something I want to see again”.
– An National Transportation Safety Board spokesman held a brief news conference near the scene Saturday afternoon, saying the accident involved a “significant loss of life”, although he would not give an exact number.
Robert Sumwalt, who will head the NTSB’s crash investigation team, said he was studying the board’s recommendations to the FAA based on previous hot air balloon crashes. Several big power lines atop towers ran east and west at the field’s southern end.
Law enforcement officers responded to a 911 call about a possible auto accident in the Maxwell area, according to a statement on the Caldwell County Office of Emergency Management’s Facebook page.
Aamodt said a ride in a hot air balloon could still be unsafe even when skies look peaceful. Authorities have said it’s likely no one survived the crash Saturday morning. There were also messages of condolences posted there.
Skip Nichols, identified by the company as its chief pilot, was reported by Austin station KVUE-TV, citing close friends, to have been at the controls of the balloon when it crashed.
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Hot air balloon crashes are rare in the United States. He added that he did not “know what would distract a pilot from seeing what was in front of him, but in this case that’s apparently what happened”.
