Sixteen people were killed when a hot air balloon caught fire and plunged in central Texas on Saturday, federal officials said.
Investigators believe the balloon struck power lines and caught fire, a source with the Texas Department of Public Safety told CNN.
The National Transportation Safety Board offered no immediate details on what may have caused the accident
“The balloon was occupied and it does not appear at this time that there were any survivors of the crash,” Caldwell County Sheriff Daniel Law said in a statement.
The balloon’s wreckage was located below high-voltage power lines, USA Today reported.
The balloon was operated by Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon rides, which is based in New Braunfels, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
Skip Nichols, the owner and pilot of the ill-fated balloon, was very focused on safety, his former girlfriend told the paper.
“He was a good pilot and loved people,” Wendy Bartch said about Nichols, who was in his late 40s and had been involved in hot air balloons for at least two decades.
Bartch, who worked as an assistant at his former balloon operation in St. Louis, said she suspected the accident took place in one of the balloons known as a 350, one of the larger ones.
The number stands for the weight of the balloon itself — known as the “envelope,” she told the paper.
“A lot of people are scared of it, but it’s just like sitting in your living room – except it’s a better view,” she said.
But, she said, “there are always things can go wrong. It’s not like waiting tables.
“You have elevation, you have fire, you have propane,” she added. “Anything can go wrong. 99.99 percent of the time it doesn’t. That’s because you have a pilot so highly skilled and trained – and Skip was the best, he was very thorough.”
According to the company’s website, its largest balloon can hold 24 people.
Lynn Lunsford of the Federal Aviation Administration said the accident occurred in clear conditions at 8:40 a.m. near Lockhart.
Calls to 911 at first reported a vehicle crash on Jolly Road near Cistern Road, near the town of Maxwell, but when first responders arrived they determined it was the basket portion of the balloon.
The FAA and the NTSB responded to the scene, about 30 miles south of Austin. The FBI also dispatched a team to help in evidence-gathering.
Eric Grosof of the NTSB said the investigation will begin “full bore” Monday after agency specialists reach the location, the American-Statesman reported
“It’s much like a crime scene,” Grosof said. “You only get one chance at it so you have got to do it right.”
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. He said it was possible the balloon’s basket hit power lines that ignited fuel, the American-Statesman reported.
Caldwell County Sheriff Daniel C. Law told The Associated Press that unlike purchasing tickets for airlines, which keep passenger lists, people can simply walk up and buy a balloon ticket.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott offered his condolences to those killed in the crash.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families, as well as the Lockhart community,” he said in a statement.
Margaret Wiley, who lives about a quarter-mile from the crash site, said she was letting her dog out Saturday morning when she heard a “pop, pop, pop.”
“I looked around and it was like a fireball going up,” she said, noting that the fireball was located under large power lines and almost high enough to reach the bottom of them.
The number of victims aboard the balloon equals the total number of those killed in hot air balloon accidents from 2002 to 2012, according to the NTSB.
The agency investigated 775 hot air balloon accidents since 1964 – 70 involving fatalities.
The deadliest accident occurred in February 2013, when a hot air balloon caught fire over Luxor, Egypt, killing 19 of 21 people on board.
In the US, three people were killed during a festival in Caroline County, Virginia, in May 2014 when their balloon hit a power line and burst into flames during a landing attempt.
The crash in Texas is the deadliest on record in the Western Hemisphere, said Jeff Chatterton, a spokesman for the Balloon Federation of North America, Reuters reported,
“There are thousands of balloons that go up every year,” he said. “This is unspeakably tragic but it is rather unique.”
More than 150 commercial hot air balloon companies are in operation in North America, he said.
Hot air balloon pilots must be certified and the balloons, which use propane gas to heat the air for lift, must have an air-worthiness certificate.
The FAA inspects the balloons used for commercial use after 100 hours of flight time or at least once a year.
Accident investigators warned the FAA two years ago of the potential for many hot air balloon deaths and recommended greater safety oversight of commercial operators. The FAA rejected those recommendations.
The NTSB wrote FAA Administrator Michael Huerta in April 2014 warning of “the potential for a high number of fatalities in a single air tour balloon accident.”
The board urged the FAA to require tour operators to get agency permission to operate, and that balloon operators be subject to FAA safety oversight.
Huerta said regulations were unnecessary because the risks were too low.
With Post Wires