What happened? Authorities said 16 people are dead after a hot air balloon caught fire and crashed in Central Texas.
The Caldwell County Sheriff's Office said in a statement Saturday that investigators are in the process of identifying the victims.
Lynn Lunsford with the Federal Aviation Administration said in an earlier statement that the accident happened shortly after 7:40 a.m. Saturday near Lockhart when the hot air balloon crashed into a pasture. The initial call came in as a possible vehicle accident and fire. When deputies arrived, they realized that the basket portion of a hot air balloon was on fire, the Sheriff's Office said. Debris at the scene of the crash lies directly below high-voltage power lines.
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Eyewitness account: Margaret Wylie, who lives near the scene, said she heard a pop outside the house and went out to the porch when she heard another pop. She said she then heard a whooshing noise and saw a fireball go up as high as the lowest power line.
"The next thing I knew," she said, "I saw a big fireball went up and you're just praying that whoever is in there got out on time."
Wylie, who says she see hot air balloons there in the area often, called 911.
The investigation: The National Transportation Safety Board is calling the hot balloon crash that killed 16 people Saturday near Lockhart a "major crash" that will be investigated by a team of experts from Washington.
Erik Grosof, with the safety board, said the investigation will begin “full bore” Monday after specialists from an agency “Go Team” arrive in Central Texas. The FBI’s office in San Antonio will assist in collecting evidence in the investigation, Grosof said.
“It’s much like a crime scene,” Grosof said. “You only get one chance at it so you have got to do it right.”
Grosof said it appears the balloon in the crash was operated by Heart Of Texas Hot Air Balloon rides, which is based in New Braunfels, according to the Better Business Bureau.
Expert weighs in: Troy Bradley, a hot air balloon pilot in New Mexico, said the area between Austin and San Antonio is a common place to fly balloons.
Bradley said it’s unlikely that the balloon could have caught on fire by itself; rather, he guessed that power lines struck the balloon basket and perhaps ignited fuel. High voltage power lines are very near the scene where the hot air balloon carrying 16 caught fire and crashed in a hay field Saturday.
Balloons are very simple mechanically, Bradley said, and neither hot weather nor the size of this balloon should have presented a problem. Bradley said he’s flown balloons with up to 28 people, and he flies throughout the summer in New Mexico.
Balloon flight relies on the air inside the balloon being significantly hotter than the surrounding air, Bradley said, so in hot weather, the balloon has to heat up more. But as long as the temperature is taken into account, he said the heat wouldn’t stop a flight.
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