Fatal Combination: Hot-Air Balloons and High-Tension Power Lines

A post on Friday pointed to the dangers of riding a bicycle on a street with trolley tracks, which can prove fatal. Another dangerous transportation and infrastructure combination resulted in the greatest loss of life in the United States for those riding in another mode of transportation, hot-air balloons, on July 30.

A New York Times article on July 30 gives the details of the crash:

The balloon crashed in a pasture near Lockhart, a town about 30 miles south of Austin, said Lynn Lunsford, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Initial reports from officials said the balloon had plummeted after catching fire in the air, but at least one witness said it might have struck high-tension power lines before hitting the ground and bursting into flames. 

Dallas-based WFAA TV has a video of the entire Sunday afternoon news press briefing given by National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) board member Robert Sumwalt who clarifies that the balloon had indeed struck transmission lines.

"The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent Federal agency charged by Congress with investigating every civil aviation accident the United States and significant accidents in other modes of transportation," according to its webpage.

“We’re here to gather factual information,” Sumwalt said. “We’re not here to solve the accident, we’re not here to determine a probable cause...we’re not going to speculate on the cause of the accident.”

"There's physical evidence to show the balloon hit the wires and not the tower," Sumwalt said. 

Sumwalt said it wasn’t clear if it caught fire before or after impact with the power line.

This was not a helium balloon. Rather, it uses a burner(s) to heat the air, which causes the balloon to rise.

The balloon, "operated by Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides...had four propane tanks and three burners," states Sumwalt in the video.

NTSB gathered "14 electronic devices recovered from the crash site, including cellphones, tablets and cameras" for analysis.

Greater oversight by Federal Aviation Administration needed

The NTSB urged the FAA two years ago to tighten its regulations on hot air balloon operators or risk a “high number of fatalities in a single air tour balloon accident.”

The FAA’s response to the recommendations was “unacceptable,” Sumwalt said Sunday.

"Before Saturday, the worst balloon accident in the United States occurred in August 1993 in Woody Creek, Colo., near Aspen, when a wind gust blew a balloon into a power line complex," according to The Times. "The basket was severed and fell more than 100 feet, killing all six people aboard."

Nineteen people died in a hot-air balloon crash which didn't involve transmission lines in Luxor, Egypt in February 2013.

In that crash, the balloon was sailing over archaeological sites at dawn when a fire caused an explosion in a gas canister and the balloon plummeted more than 1,000 feet to the ground. Two people survived — the pilot and a passenger, who jumped from the basket from about 30 feet.