NZ hot air balloon crash kills 11
- 12 years ago
Eleven people died after a hot air balloon burst into flames and crashed in New Zealand.
(SOUNDBITE) WELLINGTON DISTRICT COMMANDER, SUPERINTENDENT MIKE RUSBATCH SAYING (English):
"Yes, we believe that we know the identification of those people. It appears that there were five couples on board along with the pilot and those couples are from the greater Wellington region."
Police said the balloon seemed to have clipped powerlines and then caught fire before crashing into farmland near Carterton, 50 miles northeast of Wellington.
One man saw the accident, which occurred just before 7:30 in the morning in clear, calm weather.
(SOUNDBITE) EYEWITNESS BEVAN LAMBESS, SAYING (English):
"I could see two people perhaps -- I couldn't see anyone else, I was pretty shocked when I heard it was eleven. Then after that I got to the corner and I saw, it must have been released or the line got released off the basket - it went straight up in the air and the flames just engulfed the whole balloon and then it just crashed to the ground."
Two victims were reported to have jumped or fallen from the burning balloon before it crashed.
This accident is New Zealand's worst air disaster since an Antarctic tourist flight crashed into Mt Erebus in 1979.
Marie-Claire Fennessy, Reuters
(SOUNDBITE) WELLINGTON DISTRICT COMMANDER, SUPERINTENDENT MIKE RUSBATCH SAYING (English):
"Yes, we believe that we know the identification of those people. It appears that there were five couples on board along with the pilot and those couples are from the greater Wellington region."
Police said the balloon seemed to have clipped powerlines and then caught fire before crashing into farmland near Carterton, 50 miles northeast of Wellington.
One man saw the accident, which occurred just before 7:30 in the morning in clear, calm weather.
(SOUNDBITE) EYEWITNESS BEVAN LAMBESS, SAYING (English):
"I could see two people perhaps -- I couldn't see anyone else, I was pretty shocked when I heard it was eleven. Then after that I got to the corner and I saw, it must have been released or the line got released off the basket - it went straight up in the air and the flames just engulfed the whole balloon and then it just crashed to the ground."
Two victims were reported to have jumped or fallen from the burning balloon before it crashed.
This accident is New Zealand's worst air disaster since an Antarctic tourist flight crashed into Mt Erebus in 1979.
Marie-Claire Fennessy, Reuters