Hot air balloon bursts into flames, killing 2

An official said the balloon was preparing to launch when it caught fire.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — A hot air balloon burst into flames over western Canada, burning two passengers to death while their families looked on, police said Saturday. Other passengers leaped to the ground, some with their clothes in flames, witnesses said.

Eleven people were seriously injured when the balloon crashed Friday evening in a recreational vehicle park in Surrey, British Columbia, a suburb of Vancouver. There were 12 passengers and a pilot on board, police and witnesses said.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Roger Morrow said relatives of the two passengers killed witnessed the fire. He declined to comment on reports that the dead were a mother and her grown daughter.

“It’s just tragic. They watched it unfold before their eyes,” Morrow said of the families. “The fatalities suffered from burns.”

The balloon caught fire as it prepared to launch, said Bill Yearwood, an investigator with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

Fire broke out

“The crew loaded 12 passengers and was preparing to launch when a fire erupted. The pilot asked the passengers to get out of the basket,” he said. “The balloon was tethered at the time, but then broke and came loose,” he added. “They were all trying to get out.”

After most of the passengers escaped, the balloon exploded in a fireball and shot up into the air. Shortly after, the burning balloon plunged to ground in the RV park, leaving a tail of thick black smoke in its wake.

“I can’t tell you what exactly happened when the balloon was loosened from the tether,” Yearwood said. “We will be talking to attending crew members and the pilot to find out.” He said the pilot was in stable condition.

“The thing went up about 400 feet in the air at which point it melted enough of the balloon — it collapsed,” said Don Randall, a resident of the trailer park who took pictures of the scene. “The basket was basically a fireball. It just dropped like a stone,” he added.

“I’m just thinking, ’Oh geez, I hope there’s nobody in that thing. It’s basically a burning death up there,”’ he said.

Smoke could be seen billowing from the crash site from miles away.

Another resident, Karen Ashby, held back tears while she explained how she watched the coroner sift through the blackened wreckage.

“They found the bodies in here,” Ashby said. “I watched them take them out.”

Cause still unknown

The cause of the accident was not immediately known. Weather conditions were clear at the time of the sunset flight.

“People were screaming and trying to get out,” Frank Hersey said Friday night near a grassy field where several of the injured were being attended to by ambulance crews.

Perry Kendall said he saw what looked like something out of a movie. “It was horrifying,” said a shaken Kendall. “Just looking at people screaming and jumping out of there. Some of them, I think, had fire on their clothes. It was just awful.”

Witnesses also said propane tanks from the balloon shot off and landed on the Hazelmere RV park below, setting fire to three trailers and several vehicles. No one was reported hurt in those blazes.