February 26, 2013 -- Updated 1600 GMT (0000 HKT)
Nineteen tourists on a hot air balloon ride in southern Egypt were
killed Tuesday when the balloon exploded and plummeted to the ground,
authorities said. FULL STORY
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February 26, 2013 -- Updated 1547 GMT (2347 HKT)
Egyptians inspect the site where a
hot air balloon exploded over the city of Luxor on Tuesday, February
26. Eighteen tourists were killed when the balloon dropped almost 1,000
feet (about 300 meters), authorities said. Three people were injured.
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Fatal hot air balloon crash
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Death toll rises to 19, officials say; two people are hospitalized
- Foreign tourists are from Hong Kong, Japan, Britain, France and Hungary
- A gas explosion caused the balloon to fall about 300 meters (almost 1,000 feet)
Tuesday morning, as one of the balloons prepared to land, an explosion pierced the air, followed by a spreading billow of smoke.
"My first thought was
that it was sugar cane that was burning," said Christopher Michel, a
photographer who was on another balloons.
The burning of sugar cane had given an eerie, smoky feel to the ancient city of Luxor below.
But the concern shown by
his balloon's pilot and the sound of sirens told Michel that something
was wrong. He could not imagine the extent: One of the balloons had
exploded, and its 21 passengers and operators plummeted some 1,000 feet
(300 meters) to the ground.
By Tuesday afternoon, the
death toll had climbed to 19. It was the deadliest hot air balloon
accident in the world in at least 20 years.
"This juxtaposition of
this great beauty and this wonderful country and this horrible tragedy
is just really shocking," Michel told CNN. "We all feel terrible."
It was an early, dark
morning, Michel said, and uneventful for 45 minutes until they started
to descend. He was overlooking mud-brick buildings and fields, with the
Valley of the Kings in the distance, when the explosion shattered the
quiet of the morning.
It was a gas explosion, state-run EgyNews reported.
Passengers in the
balloon included 19 foreign tourists: nine from Hong Kong, four from
Japan, three from Britain, two from France and one from Hungary,
officials said.
An Egyptian pilot and another Egyptian also were on board, Luxor province spokesman Badawi al-Masri said.
Two people -- a Briton and the pilot -- are hospitalized.
Tourists killed in hot air balloon blast
Balloon rides offering
panoramic aerial views of the Nile River and the ancient temples of
Karnak and Hatshepsut are a popular tourist attraction in Luxor, about a
nine-hour drive southeast of Cairo.
"You can see Valley of the Kings in the background
bordered by farmland," Pauline Liang of Vancouver, Canada, told CNN's
iReport last year. "Below were banana farms, and behind us was the city
of Luxor. There was a great contrast between desert landscape, lush
farmland and urban development."
Tuesday's crash prompted Gov. Izzat Saad of Luxor province to ban all hot air balloon flights until further notice.
Comparing it to a
previous hot air balloon experience in another country, Michel noted
that there was no safety briefing before the Luxor balloons lifted off
the ground, but added that he felt safe during the trip.
From what he could tell, the doomed balloon was not overloaded, he said on his Twitter account.
The last hot air balloon
accident in Luxor occurred in 2009, when 16 foreign tourists were
injured afer a balloon struck a cell phone transmission tower.
Until Tuesday's
incident, the deadliest accident in recent memory took place in 1989,
when 13 people were killed as two hot air balloons collided in
Australia.
Egyptian government
spokesman Alaa Hadidi announced that the Cabinet will form a committee
from the Ministry of Civil Aviation to investigate Tuesday's accident,
EgyNews said.
CNN's Housam Ahmed and journalist Adam Makary in Cairo contributed to this report.
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