PHOTOSPEAKS

20 Dead As Hot Air Balloon Explodes Mid Air In Egypt

Published

12 years ago

February 26, 2013

Doomed: The hot air balloon flies over the memorial temple of Ramses II known as The Ramesseum during a early morning flight in December

Two Britons are among 18 tourists who were killed after a hot air balloon crashed near Luxor in Egypt early this morning.

Two british survivors are in the hospital and in critical condition. They survived by jumping out of the balloon.

The balloon exploded at 1,000ft (300 metres) and came down in a ball of flames in a sugar cane field, close to the famous Valley of the Kings….

Destroyed: Egyptians inspect the site where the remnants of the craft landed after it exploded during a sunrise flight

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Jumped: An employee at the company operating the balloon, Sky Cruise, said the two survivors jumped from the basket before it hit the ground

Cherry Tohamy, an Egyptian living in Kuwait who was on holiday in Luxor, was in another balloon which was landing when she heard an explosion and saw flames from a balloon above.

She told the BBC: ‘Our pilot told us that the balloon had hit a high pressure electrical cable and a cylinder on board exploded.

‘People were jumping out of the balloon from about the height of a seven-storey building.’

She said ambulances were at the scene within 15 minutes.

The authorities have been seen putting corpses into body bags and taking them away in ambulances.

U.S. photographer Christopher Michel was in another balloon behind, taking some aerial shots, when the accident happened.

‘I was in the balloon in front. There were around eight balloons flying that morning,’ he said.

‘I heard a loud explosion behind us and saw lots of smoke.

‘Our pilot said that something like this had not happened for a long time, told us to look forward and we were taken to the ground.

‘I did not see the balloon come down but I would assume it fell.

‘It is a real tragedy and everybody is in a lot of shock.’

The cause of the accident is yet unclear – there were reports that the hose attached to the gas tanks was cut while some workers were trying to tug the rope of the balloon during landing, which led to the explosion.

After the hose had been cut, the tanks exploded, and the balloon rose 400 metres in the air and caught fire.