- Incident was outside Luxor, close to the famous Valley of the Kings
- Witnesses heard an explosion, saw smoke and then it fell from the sky
- Casualties: British, French, Japanese and Chinese nationals
- Reports: Two Brits seen jumping before basket hit the ground
- Witness: ‘People were jumping from the height of a seven-storey building’
- The catastrophe may be the deadliest hot air balloon accident in history
By
Martin Robinson and Jill Reilly
01:55 EST, 26 February 2013
|
11:15 EST, 26 February 2013
The British death toll in the Egypt hot air balloon accident has risen to three after one of the survivors died in hospital this afternoon after five hours in surgery.
In total nineteen tourists have now died as a result of the hot air balloon exploding at 1,000ft (300 metres) and coming down in a ball of flames in a sugar cane field.
The survivors – two Britons and one Egyptian – had been taken to a local hospital after leaping from the balloon just before it crashed.
Eyewitness Cherry Tohamy was in another balloon nearby and told the BBC: ‘People were jumping out of the balloon from about the height of a seven-storey building.’
Scroll down for video
Grim: The site of a balloon crash where the remains of the burned gondola are seen. In total nineteen tourists were killed after the hot air balloon exploded and came down in a ball of flames
Destroyed: Egyptians inspect the site where the remnants of the craft landed after it exploded during a sunrise flight
Aftermath: Two British survivors were taken to hospital, but shortly after 1pm tour operator Thomas Cook said that one of the them had since died
The last Briton has been airlifted to the Egyptian capital Cairo, 320 miles north of Luxor.
Two of the Britons involved in the balloon tragedy were today named locally as Michael and Yvonne Rennie, of Perth, Scotland.
The pilot survived by jumping from the basket when it was 10-15 metres from the ground, said Ahmed Aboud, head of an association representing Luxor balloon operators.
Mohamed Mustafa, a doctor at at Luxor hospital said the fatalities were caused by burns and by the impact.
The Foreign Office has confirmed that three Britons were killed in the accident close to the famous Valley of the Kings.
Gas tanks amid the wreckage: Tour operator Kuoni has confirmed there were nine Chinese nationals on board the craft – tourists from three families were involved in the fatal crash
Wreckage: Egyptian security forces pick up pieces of the mangled wreckage in the cane field
Jumped: An employee at the company operating the balloon, Sky Cruise, said the two survivors jumped from the basket before it hit the ground
Health Minister Mohamed Mostafa Hamed
said the blast had happened in the pipe linking the gas canisters to
the burner and the tragedy was an accident.
Moustafa
who works for the travel company that organised the hot air balloon ride
told France 24: ‘I saw a fire in the balloon’s basket. Due to the fire,
the balloon lost [altitude]. It was out of control. It jerked up and
dropped down again 30 metres. There were some people jumping from the
balloon and falling into the sugar cane fields before it crashed.
Some witnesses said that the balloon
was being towed into land when it flew back up into the air almost
1,000ft before exploding and plummeting back down.
Up to nine people tried to jump before it flew back up and the rest died in the explosion.
Tour operator Kuoni has confirmed there
were nine Chinese nationals on board the craft – tourists from three families were involved in the fatal crash.
Scene: These pictures were taken by a tourist 40 minutes before the hot air balloon on the left exploded in the sky and plunged to the ground
Eyewitnesses: People in the area heard a huge bang and saw the green and yellow balloon (pictured right before take-off) crash into a sugar cane field
Witness: Photographer Christopher Michel took pictures of the group of balloons 40 minutes before the crash, and he also heard the explosion
RADIO 2 ACCUSED OF BEING ‘CRASS AND INSENSITIVE’ OVER HOT AIR BALLOON TWEET
BBC Radio 2 has been criticised after posting a ‘crass and insensitive’ message on Twitter following this morning’s hot air balloon accident.
The tweet from the Jeremy Vine show read: ’19 tourists are believed to have died in a hot air balloon crash in Egypt. Have you tried something you wouldn’t normally on holiday?’
ScottishFalsettoSock tweeted back: ‘No, not crass or insensitive at all.’
Tom Stoneman responded: ‘You should really delete this ASAP. Massively insensitive and not appropriate.’
tvBite added: ‘Have you tried not being c**** about hot air balloon crashes that kill 19 people?’
Several other tweeters compared the tweet to ignorantly commenting on the Holocaust and the Tsunami.
Paddy O’Connell is hosting the midday show for Jeremy Vine. .
France’s Foreign Ministry has confirmed that two French nationals also died in the crash.
The Japanese embassy in Cairo said it believed four Japanese had been aboard and had sent staff to Luxor to confirm this.
The authorities have been seen putting corpses into body bags and taking them away in ambulances.
U.S. photographer Christopher Michel was in another balloon behind, taking some aerial shots, when the accident happened.
‘I was in the balloon in front. There were around eight balloons flying that morning,’ he said.
‘I heard a loud explosion behind us and saw lots of smoke.
‘Our pilot said that something like
this had not happened for a long time, told us to look forward and we
were taken to the ground.
‘I did not see the balloon come down but I would assume it fell.
‘It is a real tragedy and everybody is in a lot of shock.’
Ezzat Saad, the governor of Luxor,
told Nile News that the Egyptian pilot of the balloon was in the
hospital with 70 percent burns.
General
Mamdough Khaled, director of security for Luxor Governate said in a
statement Luxor International Hospital received 19 badly burned bodies.
The Foreign Office said in a statement: ‘We can confirm the tragic deaths of two British Nationals and one British resident following a hot air balloon crash in Luxor, Egypt earlier today.’
”The next of kin have been informed and our thoughts are with them and their families at this difficult time. We are providing them with consular assistance. We can also confirm that one other British National was involved and is in a stable condition.’
VIDEO: Eyewitnesses describes the balloon crash that killed 18 tourists
Play Video
Loading video…
Tragedy: At least 19 foreign tourists, including some British citizens, have been killed after their hot air balloon exploded and fell from the sky
Tragic: The authorities have been seen putting corpses into body bags and taking them away in ambulances
Shocked: Egyptians gather near the scene of the crash – it is unclear exactly exactly how many people were onboard the flight
DEADLIEST HOT AIR BALLOON ACCIDENT IN HISTORY
This morning’s accident may be the deadliest hot air balloon accident in history.
The previous highest death toll was in 1989, when 13 people were killed after two hot air balloons collided in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.
The mid-air collision happened as one hot air balloon ascended, smashing into another carriage above it.
This caused one of them to be sent crashing towards the ground – the descent reportedly lasted 51 seconds.
Witness statements said the balloon ‘folded and fell to earth’ and that it ‘fell to the ground like a streamer.’
In 1992 the Darwin Supreme Court sentenced the pilot of the upper balloon, Michael Sanby, to two years’ jail, with an eight-month parole period, after being found guilty of committing a dangerous act. He was found not guilty on 13 charges of manslaughter.
‘I know the pilot – he’s a good pilot. The problem wasn’t him, it was the balloon – what could he do? Everyone in our company is shocked and very sad about what’s happened.’
Konny Matthews, assistant manager of Luxor’s Al Moudira hotel, said she heard an explosion at about 7 a.m. (0500 GMT).
‘It was a huge bang. It was a frightening bang, even though it was several kilometres away from the hotel,’ she said by phone.
‘Some of my employees said that their homes were shaking.’
The balloon crashed on the west bank of the Nile river, where many of the major historical sites are located.
The catastrophe may be the deadliest hot
air balloon accident in history - in 1989 13 people were killed when
two hot air balloons collided in Australia.
Hot air balloon trips, usually at
sunrise over the Karnak and Luxor temples as well as the Valley of the
Kings, are popular with British visitors to Egypt.
Sixteen
people were hurt, including two British women, when a balloon crashed
during a tour of Luxor in April 2009.
The balloon was believed to have
hit a mobile phone transmission tower near the banks of the Nile.
Former policewoman Linda Lea, 67, from Stoke-on-Trent, still suffers from the multiple injuries she sustained in that crash.
Doomed: The hot air balloon involved in the crash flies over the memorial temple of Ramses II known as The Ramesseum during a early morning flight in December
Experience of a lifetime: For many tourists, an early morning flight over The Valley Of The Kings is the highlight of their holiday (file image)
HOT AIR BALLOON SAFETY IN EGYPT: ‘PATCHY AND IN SOME CASES INAPPROPRIATE’
A British ballooning expert today attacked safety standards on Egyptian pleasure flights.
Phil Dunington, a commercial ballooning consultant who has advised the Egyptian government on safety says the country’s supervision of the industry is ‘patchy and in some cases inappropriate.’
He also suggested that competition for tourist business among rival operators may affect safety standards.
Mr Dunington said: ‘The thing to recognise is that there are a lot of operators out there. There is a great commercial rivalry, so clearly there are the good and less good among them.
Talking about the prospect of an explosion on board the balloon at a height of about 1,000ft, he said it was too early to say what might have caused it.
‘There are a number of possible causes, but equipment failure in balloons is very rare these days, so that is a less likely cause, although it is possible.
‘It’s possible that contact with a power line might have been an issue and of course balloons are powered by propane, so the propane gas is an element to concentrate on. It may have been a contributory factor.’
She said today: ‘I cannot believe
this has happened again. They promised to tighten safety procedures
after my crash. Flights were stopped for a time.
‘These balloons are just too
unstable. There is not enough training of staff. There were about 22 or
23 in my balloon when it crashed and maybe there was too many then andtoo many in today’s accident.’
Mrs Lea’s injuries included a fractured spine, a broken collarbone, broken ribs and a broken shin.
Her balloon hit a mobile phone transmission tower after a strong gust of wind, sending the balloon crashing to the ground.
Mrs
Lea was dragged along the ground and then left in a field for an hour.
She was in hospital for a total of four months, receiving treatment in
Egypt and then in the West Midlands and then nearer her home.
Following the 2009 crash, early
morning hot air balloon flights over the Valley of the Kings on the West
Bank of the Nile were suspended for six months while safety measures
were tightened up.
During the break, all 42 pilots from the eight companies who operate flights had extra training.
Other initiatives to improve safety
brought in included confining all take-offs to a new balloon ‘airport’
and limiting the maximum number of balloons up at the same time to eight
- previously as many as 50 could share the air space.
Luxor is 320 miles south
of Cairo and is one of Egypt’s most popular tourist destinations as it
is close to the famous Valley of the Kings, where many pharaohs are
buried, including Tutankhamen.
The
incident could damage Egypt’s fragile tourism industry, which has
suffered a sharp downturn in visitor numbers since the 2011 uprising
that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, with two years of political
instability scaring off foreign tourists.
VIDEO: Aftermath of hot air balloon crash caught on camera
Play Video
Loading video…
AUDIO Balloon crash eyewitness. ‘An explosion and lots of smoke’…
Play Video
Loading video…
VIDEO: Hong Kong travel agent confirms tourists from three families were involved in fatal crash
Play Video
Loading video…
-
Egypt tourists threw themselves from blazing balloon from…
-
The real naked chefs! Crazy web craze sees participants shun…
-
Restaurant owner spots determined teen walking 10 MILES for…
-
Honey Boo Boo aims for world domination as reality show is…
-
Labor pains: One woman’s moving picture essay on the agony…
-
Scuba diving firm that left weights strapped to drowned…
-
The Onion forced to issue grovelling apology after using…
-
Prince and Princess Michael of Kent to become grandparents…
-
‘Custom outfits and you’ll earn far more than other girls’:…
-
‘He was going to watch the blood rush from my body’:…
-
College student may be expelled from school because she…
-
Naked robber leaves lingerie store wearing red dress and…
Share this article:
The comments below have been moderated in advance.
-
Newest -
Oldest -
Best rated -
Worst rated
Why do people go on these ghastly holidays? My wife and I only holiday in Britain, Western Europe and North America were there are British level safety standards. Can’t wait for our next holiday in Cornwall in a few weeks.
Adam
,
London, United Kingdom,
26/2/2013 15:52
Report abuse
Egypt has long had safety problems with their balloon rides. Steer clear until they are regulated to the same or better standard of UK, EU or USA.
Waggle
,
Houston, United States,
26/2/2013 15:50
Report abuse
Your comments:My condolences to the victims family
Roger
,
Bristol,
26/2/2013 15:36
Report abuse
Very sad way to die. Accidents do happen but Egypt seems to be quite cursed vis a vis tourism and troubles
S E
,
London, United Kingdom,
26/2/2013 15:22
Report abuse
Tragic… R.I.P
Elaine
,
Ismailia Egypt,
26/2/2013 15:05
Report abuse
Would never visit Egypt since a friend went and saw a man drowning three horses in a river. Dreadful uncivilised place. You would have to be mad to use a hot air balloon in such a hell hole.
Jane
,
Ipswich,
26/2/2013 15:04
Report abuse
@ Joe Dutra, Leeds – I think you’ll find that 19 people died this morning in this deadly crash.
Emily
,
UK, United Kingdom,
26/2/2013 15:01
Report abuse
I’be been going to luxor since i was 7 and been on the balloon ever holiday each yeah and I am now 18 nothing like this has happened, its made me so upset, and that I know the pilot of this particular flight, I am so sorry for the families of the people on board, this story made me cry when I told my mum this morning
amy
,
london, United Kingdom,
26/2/2013 15:00
Report abuse
I flew last May over the Valley of the Kings in a Hot Air Balloon, it was an amazing experience. We were given a full safety briefing before boarding and given a written briefing at the same time to follow. Egypt is a beautiful country with outstanding historical sites. It saddens me to see such bigoted comments above.
Beverly
,
Warwickshire, United Kingdom,
26/2/2013 14:56
Report abuse
Doesn’t come close to being the “deadliest” hot air balloon accident. Alice Springs, Australia holds that record, with an accident that occurred in 1989. Thirteen people died that day.
- Joe Dutra, Leeds, United Kingdom, 26/2/2013 7:06
And thirteen is more than nineteen? Nineteen people died here, yes, three of them were British, but I hope every life counts, also that of the French and Japanese that died.
Mizz D.
,
Phx,
26/2/2013 14:52
Report abuse
The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.
Egypt hot air balloon crash: British death toll in Luxor accident rises to three
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét