hot air balloon
A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule), which carries ...
crashed near
Luxor
Luxor ( ar, الأقصر, al-ʾuqṣur, lit=the palaces) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of ''Thebes''.
Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-a ...
, Egypt, killing 19 out of the 21 people on board. A fire developed in the basket due to a leak in the balloon's gas fuel system, causing the balloon to deflate mid-air and crash to the ground.
It was the deadliest ballooning accident in history and the deadliest aerostat disaster since the ''Hindenburg'' disaster in 1937, which killed 36 people.
Background
Hot air balloons are commonly used in Luxor to provide tourists with aerial views of the Nile River, the temple of
Karnak
The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak (, which was originally derived from ar, خورنق ''Khurnaq'' "fortified village"), comprises a vast mix of decayed temples, pylons, chapels, and other buildings near Luxor, Egypt. Constr ...
, and the
Valley of the Kings
The Valley of the Kings ( ar, وادي الملوك ; Late Coptic: ), also known as the Valley of the Gates of the Kings ( ar, وادي أبوا الملوك ), is a valley in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th ...
, among other historical attractions. Concerns over passenger safety have been raised from time to time, with multiple crashes reported in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
In April 2009, 16 people had been hurt when a balloon crashed during a tour of Luxor. After the crash, flights were grounded for six months while safety measures were improved. Pilot training was increased and balloons were given a designated launching site. Following the toppling of
Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak, (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011.
Before he entered politics, Mubarak was a career officer in ...
in 2011, the rule of law and the improved regulations were largely ignored.
Sky Cruise, the operator of the balloon, had suffered a previous accident in October 2011, which even involved the same balloon. The company has stated that it is properly insured and prepared to compensate victims' families.
Crash
On 26 February at 07:00
Egypt Standard Time
Egypt Standard Time (EGY) ( ''Tawqīt Miṣr al-qiyāsiyy'') is UTC+02:00, which is equivalent to Eastern European Time, Central Africa Time, South African Standard Time and Central European Summer Time, and is co-linear with neighbouring ...
(05:00 UTC), an Ultramagic N-425 balloon,Ultramagic Balloons manualsArchive registration SU-283, operated by Sky Cruise departed on a sight-seeing flight carrying 20 passengers and a pilot. According to a nearby balloon pilot, Mohamed Youssef, a fire started in the Sky Cruise balloon a few meters off the ground as it was attempting to land, as a result of a leaking fuel line. As the fire engulfed the basket, the pilot and one passenger leaped to safety as the craft rose rapidly aided by a wind gust. As the balloon rose, approximately seven passengers jumped to their deaths to escape the fire. At an altitude of approximately , there was an explosion which could be heard several kilometers away. The balloon and remaining passengers plunged to the ground, killing everyone remaining on board. Youssef said it appeared that a gas leak in one of the balloon's tanks caused the fire and resulting explosion, consistent with information reported in state-run media. Earlier reports had indicated that the balloon may have contacted a
power line
An overhead power line is a structure used in electric power transmission and distribution to transmit electrical energy across large distances. It consists of one or more uninsulated electrical cables (commonly multiples of three for three-p ...
.
Two minutes later, the burning craft crashed into a sugar cane field west of Luxor. A second explosion was reported 15 seconds later. Ambulances arrived on the scene after 15 minutes. Bodies were scattered across the field when rescue workers arrived on the scene. The balloon's final moments were caught on amateur video.
Casualties
At the time of its ascent, the balloon carried 20 passengers and Momin Murad, the balloon's Egyptian pilot. Nineteen of the passengers were tourists: nine from Hong Kong, four from Japan, three from Britain, two from France, and one from Hungary; the 20th passenger was an Egyptian tour guide. Of the Hong Kongers, five were women and four were men. They were members of three families on a tour group organized by
Kuoni Travel
Kuoni Travel is a tourism company, operating various services including charter and scheduled passenger airlines, package holidays, cruise lines, and hotels in destinations around the world across nine different geographic regions.
The company ...
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
''. Wednesday 27 February 2013. Retrieved on 28 February 2013. "Mr Bampton and his Hungarian-born partner Suzanna Gyetvai, 34, both from Clapham, London, were confirmed dead last night. " The French victims were a 48-year-old woman and her 14-year-old daughter.
The accident killed 18 of the passengers on site; the pilot and two passengers survived the initial crash. The two surviving passengers, both British men, were rushed to hospital in critical condition. One of them died after five hours of surgery. Dr. Mohammad Abdullah, the head of the emergency ward of the Luxor hospital, said that the Briton who died in the hospital had probably suffered a fall. The surviving Briton was described as being in critical but stable condition, while the pilot was said to be conscious and talking, but with burns covering 70% of his body. Doctors at the Luxor International Hospital said that many of the dead suffered severe internal injuries and severe burns.
Wael el-Maadawi
Wa'el ( ar, وائل), also spelt Wael or Wail, is an ancient Aramaic male given name. The first currently known usage of the name was found and translated at a site called Sumatar Harabesi. There is coinage and inscriptions mentioning a King ...
, followed by suspending balloon flights nationwide. In a statement,
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Mohamed Morsi
Mohamed Mohamed Morsi Eissa al-AyyatThe spellings of his first and last names vary. survey of 14 news organizations plus Wikipedia in July 2012 National government spokesman Alaa Hadidi said a committee would be formed to investigate the accident.
The bodies of the victims were transported to four hospitals in
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
. Chinese consular officials in the Arab Republic of Egypt and Hong Kong Immigration Department officers were scheduled to travel with the family members of the Hong Kong victims to Cairo.
Kuoni Travel, the Hong Kong travel agency that organized the tour attended by the Hong Kong passengers, made plans for the six tour members who did not take the balloon ride to leave Egypt. The tour agency stated that, in addition to the US$7000 per person stipulated by contract, additional compensation would be given.
Mohammed Osman, head of the Luxor Tourism Chamber, accused civil aviation authorities of lowering standards prior to the accident. "I don't want to blame the revolution for everything, but the laxness started with the revolution," he said. "These people are not doing their job, they are not checking the balloons and they just issue the licenses without inspection." National authorities were quick to deny the allegations, noting that the balloon had recently been inspected. They also said the pilot should have shut off gas valves and attempted to put out the fire instead of bailing, and thus may have contributed to the tragedy. An anonymous civil aviation ministry official acknowledged to the press that standards had been weakened by the current regime. The pilot's license had been renewed one month prior to the accident.
Local and foreign media analysts speculated that the crash would hurt Egypt's already weakened
tourism industry
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism ...
, which was down 22% from 2010 levels. Wael Ibrahim, who oversees the tourism syndicate in Luxor, did not expect the accident to worsen the situation since tourism was already down so much. "This (type of) accident could happen anywhere in the world", he remarked. A local balloon operator, angered by the industry shutdown, remarked: "Why the mass punishment? Do you stop all flights when you have a plane crash? ... You will cut the livelihoods for nearly 3,000 human beings who live on this kind of tourism." Angered by the industry-wide shutdown, tourism workers threatened to organize protests on 2 March. The same day, Saad admitted that pressure to resume balloon flights was mounting and promised that downtime would be less than a month. Hot air balloon rides at Luxor were set to resume in April, according to a statement on the Egyptian Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission's (CARC) website.
Investigation
Preliminary results of the government investigation ruled out criminal conduct as the cause of the crash. On 2 March, Luxor-area balloon pilots held a press conference to defend Egypt's safety protocol and their colleague's actions.
The
Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority
The Ministry of Civil Aviation of Egypt (MCA, ar, وزارة الطيران المدني) is the ministry in charge of civil aviation in Egypt.
Duties
The ministry sets civil aviation regulations, sets airworthiness and all flight rules, and ai ...
released its final report of the crash on 7 January 2014. The 219-page report blamed a leak in a fuel line connected to the balloon's burner. The aging line had been in use since 2005 and sprung a leak, which ignited as the balloon came in to land. The fire severely injured the pilot, who jumped or fell from the basket. Some of the ground crew released the ground line in order to attend to the pilot, so that the remaining crew could not keep the balloon near the ground. The flaming balloon rose rapidly and uncontrolled, then exploded.