Others sustained injuries when the hot air balloon caught fire on the way to its landing spot on Saturday morning at southern Brazil.
Disturbing video depicts how the balloon is engulfed by fire as it crashes to the ground and how horrible the last minutes were on board the plane by survivors.
A peaceful balloon flight turned into the nightmare Saturday morning (June 21) over Praia Grande, a picturesque area where people take flights in balloons in southern Brazil, the state of Santa Catarina. The intended flight to fly though the forests and farms was to turn a disaster as a fire broke out in the middle of the air and gave the balloon a nosedive killing a total of eight people on board.
Pilot begs people to jump
Sobrevoar ServiCos Turisticos was managing the balloon that had 21 people on board during the disaster. Survivors and law enforcers claim that a blaze broke out in the basket which necessitated the quickness of the pilot to make an emergency landing.
As reported by the pilot, one of the survivors, he notices that a fire broke out inside basket as such began to bring the balloon down, Officer Tiago Luiz Lemos explained the reporters, BBC reports. He said people to jump when it was very near the ground.
One pilot and 13 people were able to jump out of the balloon before it, becoming much lighter due to the participants leaving it, was able to rise once again and accelerate with the rest of the passengers in it folding into the inferno.
The fire had begun to increase and due to the loss of weight, the balloon started to ascend back up, said Officer Lemos. It subsequently crashed due to loss of suspension.
What set fire to the flames?
The root cause is yet to be established but there are initial reports of a situation in which a backup burner was present inside the basket. According to the testimony of the pilot, it could have flared up itself.
He reportedly told Jornal Razao, I am unsure whether it remained lit or reignited itself, but this is the torch which kicked it off.
Chief of police Ulisses Gabriel said that strong wind conditions when the flight was taking off might have also contributed to this. It required a ground crew to anchor the balloon using cables and at some point a truck was spotted pulling the balloon up and down.
Gabriel said Globo News: a truck was dragging the balloon on a cable which was moving very intensively. Perhaps this movement resulted in leaking of gas hence the fire.”
The fast spreading of the fire occurred even though the fire was flame-retardant materials.
Sad last acts
The eight victims were two couples, a mother and daughter, a figure skater and an ophthalmologist. Some as many as three were said to be holding each other in a last embrace, as civil police chief Ulisses Gabriel once told the papers.
He has put, on X, what is, to the soul, painful.
There were apocalyptic scenes testified by the witnesses. One of the locals told Jornal Razao: We witnessed two individuals falling on fire. When the basket broke, the balloon was down.
The other told how he arrived at the crash site: they found two people who were alive, a woman who was in shock and covered in mud, and a man who was limping. There were two bodies, like of horses, in the pasture. The balloon had gone deeper still, burning, in the woods.”
Emergency agencies hit the site and cautioned the passers-by to keep off the site because of gas leaks and explosion. The fire was already smoking as rescue workers came to the scene.
The balloon ride, according to G1 was to about last 45 minutes and attained an altitude of 1,000 meters. The approximate price that each passenger paid was 550 reais (approximately 100 dollars).
National mourning
It was stated that there will be a mourning period by Governor Jorginho Mello who is in an official mission in China. “We live in mourning; it is a tragedy,” he stated in an online video message. We are going to examine why this occurred. However the crucial moment now is how to touch the people and families.
There was also a statement of solidarity by President Luiz InAcio Lula da Silva. On X he wrote: I devote the federal government to the victims and the state and municipal forces.
The city hall of Praia Grande shared the same sentiments making available its support and condolences to the bereaved families.
Exploration and down-time of operations
The National Civil Aviation Agency (Anac) of Brazil has opened a complete investigation. According to Santa Catarina public safety secretary, results will be posted in the next 30 days. They are interviewing all the survivors including the pilot.
Balloon tourist company Sobrevoar Serviços Turísticos has been shut down with no known reopening. The company added, we are now confronted with the agony of this tragedy even after all the precautionary measures are taken and our pilot who has worked many years tried his best.
Brazil in the spotlight of ballooning
It is the second fatality of a hot air balloon in Brazil in several days. This came earlier this month when a 27 year old lady died in Sao Paulo and 11 others sustained injuries. This has caused new mixed feelings about inflating safety measures.
We feel sorry about the victims and their families.