Egypt orders probe into deadly balloon crash

EHYPT: Egypt's Prime Minister Hisham Qandil has ordered an investigation following the deaths of up to 19 tourists in a fiery hot-air balloon crash during a sunrise flight over the ancient temple city of Luxor.

The balloon, carrying 20 tourists from Hong Kong, Japan, France, Britain and Hungary, along with the pilot, was flying at 300 metres (1,000 feet) when it caught fire, exploded and plunged to earth, a security official said.

The pilot and one tourist survived by jumping out of the basket at some point before it hit the ground, said an employee of Sky Cruise, which operates the balloon rides. Both were taken to hospital.

A video shot by a passenger on another flight appears to show smoke pouring from the balloon's basket for some time before the balloon itself collapses, leaving the basket full of tourists to freefall to earth.

"This is terrible, just terrible," the employee told AFP by telephone, declining to give her name. "We don't yet know what happened exactly or what went wrong." Luxor Governor Ezzat Saad imposed an immediate ban on all hot-air balloon flights in the province as Prime Minister Hisham Qandil ordered the investigation.

Security services cordoned off the crash site in Luxor's dense sugar cane fields, as police and residents inspected the charred remains of the balloon.

"There was a terrifying sound when the balloon exploded," one resident, Ahmed, 40, told AFP.

"Bodies engulfed in flames were falling out of the balloon," said Youssef al-Tayyeb, another resident who witnessed the accident.

AFP