Hot air balloon crashes in Canada
Hot air balloon crashes in Canada
45 minutes ago
SURREY, British Columbia - A hot air balloon caught fire and crashed in an RV park and campground Friday evening, injuring as many as 11 people, police and a witness said. Two other people were unaccounted for.
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The cause of the accident wasn't known. Weather conditions were clear at the time of the sunset flight. At least three 30-foot RVs caught fire, said Don Randall, a witness who lives in the RV park. No one was reported hurt in those blazes.
Witnesses said passengers screamed and jumped to the ground as the balloon's basket caught fire. The balloon reportedly took off from a grassy field with 12 passengers.
"The thing went up about 400 feet in the air at which point it melted enough of the balloon - it collapsed," said Randall, who saw the balloon as it was on its way up and took pictures of the fiery scene. "The basket was basically a fireball, it just dropped like a stone."
"I'm just thinking, 'Oh geez, I hope there's nobody in that thing. It's basically a burning death up there,'" he said.
People who had been riding in the balloon suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries and were taken to hospitals in the nearby Vancouver area, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Roger Morrow said in a statement.
Fifteen ambulances, two air ambulances and eight fire trucks raced to the scene at the Hazelmere park, he said. Smoke could be seen billowing from the crash site from miles away, CTV said.
Randall said at least two vehicles were damaged along with the RVs. He said he ran to his RV and grabbed a small fire extinguisher, but it proved of little use.
The hot-air balloon, which CTV reported was operated by Fantasy Balloons Charters based in Langley, British Columbia, was one of several balloons in flight at the time.
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45 minutes ago
SURREY, British Columbia - A hot air balloon caught fire and crashed in an RV park and campground Friday evening, injuring as many as 11 people, police and a witness said. Two other people were unaccounted for.
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The cause of the accident wasn't known. Weather conditions were clear at the time of the sunset flight. At least three 30-foot RVs caught fire, said Don Randall, a witness who lives in the RV park. No one was reported hurt in those blazes.
Witnesses said passengers screamed and jumped to the ground as the balloon's basket caught fire. The balloon reportedly took off from a grassy field with 12 passengers.
"The thing went up about 400 feet in the air at which point it melted enough of the balloon - it collapsed," said Randall, who saw the balloon as it was on its way up and took pictures of the fiery scene. "The basket was basically a fireball, it just dropped like a stone."
"I'm just thinking, 'Oh geez, I hope there's nobody in that thing. It's basically a burning death up there,'" he said.
People who had been riding in the balloon suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries and were taken to hospitals in the nearby Vancouver area, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Roger Morrow said in a statement.
Fifteen ambulances, two air ambulances and eight fire trucks raced to the scene at the Hazelmere park, he said. Smoke could be seen billowing from the crash site from miles away, CTV said.
Randall said at least two vehicles were damaged along with the RVs. He said he ran to his RV and grabbed a small fire extinguisher, but it proved of little use.
The hot-air balloon, which CTV reported was operated by Fantasy Balloons Charters based in Langley, British Columbia, was one of several balloons in flight at the time.
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There are pics on yahoo!!! 0 -
...I went up several times a few years ago, very very neat. When your up, there is no breeze that you feel even though your moving!
THAT was a little strange feeling! The guy explained to me it was because you, the balloon are both moving at the same speed as the wind.
...Then when I was headed for a balloon fest to hitch a balloon ride one year, I had stopped to BS with a friend of mine that owned several boot stores. While him and I were outside the store talking we looked up and here comes a line of several ballons; comming from the direction of the balloon fest about 4 miles south.
Well, the wind had the balloons traveling above the service road to LBJ (635 freeway)...along the side of the service road are some of the TALL power line towers. As we watched, and saw what was about to happen, it happened. The lead balloon's basket hit the lines about
100' above the ground. Sparks flew, one person fell/jumped out, then the balloon burst into a ball of flame, and the basket fell.
When we got there one person was dead (obviously), two more were broke and burned badly. I think one recovered and the other died of their injuries.
After giving a statement to the LEO's I left...and it wasn't to go to the balloon fest either...[;)]
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Colt, that is really wild that you witnessed that horrible accident.
For two years, I worked in Atlanta at Mike Adams Balloon Loft. We were a FAA registered aircraft factory, and we made hot air balloons. Four employees, counting Mike Adams.
Every balloon we built we had to test fly, so I got to fly a lot of balloons.
Of course we kept close watch on balloon accidents. Most fatalaties happened when balloons flew into power lines.
There was one incident out west that I will never forget. A little short female pilot was taking these four guys up. This was a big family celebration, the guys' wives and kids were in four cars, following along on the ground, watching the balloon, not hard to do when the balloon is only a couple hundred feet up, and going ten mph.
The little pilot got distracted, plus, her vision was partly blocked since all the passengers were a foot taller than her.
She flew the thing right into the power lines.
These balloons use propane to run the burner. There are four ten gallon propane tanks, the ones about 12 inches wide and 3 feet high, one in each corner of the gondola. There are propane lines running all over that gondola.
There are sixteen 1/8 inch metal cables that run from the bottom of the gondola up to the balloon. In other words, a bunch of stuff that conducts electricity, and could explode and burn.
She flew into the lines, the sparks flew, and one of the propane lines blew. The balloon caught on fire, and fire was blasting from the propane line, and the gondola was burning.
This balloon was at fifty feet. In a few seconds, one of the guys jumped. I can't recall if he died but I think he did.
When you lighten a balloon by 185 pounds very quickly, the balloon immediately shoots up into the sky.
In seconds the balloon was up to 100 feet, when the second guy jumped. He died.
In a few seconds the balloon was at 200 feet, when a propane tank blew and the thing just crashed to the ground. The two guys and the pilot died.
All the families watched this from a couple hundred feet away.0
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