A hot air balloon with about 16 people on board crashed and burned in central Texas a little while ago. 7:40 am local, I assume it was a “dawn” flight and that many people probably means there were kids on board. No survivors. Details still coming in.
I can think of a long list of fairly awful ways I’d want to die before falling out of the sky and having 1,000 yards of burning nylon fall on top of me. I absolutely shudder every time I hear one of these “roman candle” stories.
Doesn’t the technology exist to make these hot air balloon fires completely preventable? Or is it a lack of regulations and enforcement?
They are highly regulated, but so are airliners.
From looking at the first (and distant) photo released, there’s a big powerline right through the middle of the crash area. I’ve never heard of 16 people in a hot air balloon before, so maybe they were overloaded and pilot couldn’t clear the lines quickly enough.
No details yet except the very basics everyone keeps repeating.
And no, as long as you have a craft powered by propane and a huge set of burners, even fire-retardant materials are not going to prevent burn-through, a burning envelope and a crash. They’re often caused when a hard wind gust (or an obstruction like a power line) pushes the envelope into the burner. A hole too big to retain lift heat can happen in moments, and if the material isn’t sufficiently retardant, it all catches fire. shudder
The BBC story notes that they came down beside power lines. Power lines are known for their lethality.
Don’t balloons fly above power lines?
They try. One scenario (completely from outside knowledge, as we don’t know anything about this crash yet): maximum, possibly excessive load with 16 people (maybe skydivers) and gear; change in or misjudgment of weather conditions (sudden temperature increase, lowering balloon lift); accident with propane/burner system leading to explosion or fire in basket, or pilot unable to avoid contact with power lines due to above conditions, and contact leads to burn-through or fire in the envelope.
Very regulated. Annual inspection, every flight, & every repair (performed by a certified repair station) are logged.
Don’t rush to judgment that there was an explosion; IF the balloon contacted power lines, it could have pushed one line close enough to another to cause an arc.
[Quote=CNN]
First I heard a whoosh," Margaret Wylie, who lives near the crash site, told CNN affiliate TWC. “And then a big ball of fire (went) up. I’d say it got as high up as those lower electric lines.”
[/quote]
A propane explosion would be a BOOM not a WOOSH.
I wonder if the reason we aren’t hearing much about the victims is because most of them were not only children, they may have been in foster care or living in a shelter.
No, they just don’t know enough, yet.
MSNBC keeps trying to link it to terrorism.
My wife and I have taken a couple balloon rides. Had a lot of fun. The pilot stayed away from any obstructions like trees or other hazards.
Hard to understand why this balloon got so near a power line. The pilot has some control over where it goes.
Terrible end to what should have been a happy day.
I attended the big Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta a lot both before and while I lived there. The first two weekends in October. Hundreds of balloons dotting the sky over the city, a magical sight. But it seemed there was always a crash or two at some point, usually fatal, no matter how skilled the pilot. I decided early on I was not going up in one of those things.
It may be a long time before victims are known. People just walk up, buy a ticket, and climb aboard, nobody writes down the names of the passengers. Imagine a roller coaster tragedy at a theme park – how would anybody know who was on board?
If numerous missing-persons reports start showing up, we’ll have some idea who they might be.
So apparently they ran into power lines.
Unless the wreckage was completely incinerated, the adults were probably carrying phones and wallets and they can use those. And even if they can’t use any of that, this is Texas so their cars are still in the lot. Once they know that, it will be fairly easy to identify the others since it’s not like very many people go ballooning with a stranger.
Huh? How do you get from ‘no information is available at the moment’ to 'the passengers are kids in care?
Is a $399/pp balloon flight a common activity for shelter kids?
The number of people a balloon system can carry is dependent on the size of the envelope. I frequently crew for a commercial hot air balloon pilot. He recently purchased a system with a 250,000 cf envelope that will carry 16 people or so. He also has systems as small as 70,000 cf that will carry only a couple people. All balloons are not the same size.
As someone earlier said, these are FAA regulated aircraft, with all the regulations and inspections that brings.
(emphasis added)
No, they don’t. If it’s run anything like my pilot’s business, these are booked and paid for in advance. There’s quite frequently re-scheduling of flights as weather conditions change, so the company is usually in contact with the passengers before the ride. Releases are signed. The size of the balloon is determined by the number of people on the trip. There’s all sorts of planning that goes on.
It makes sense to those of us old enough to remember all the hot air balloon hijackings of the 1970s.