A hot air balloon burst into flames and crashed in New Zealand yesterday after hitting a power line, killing all 11 people on board as their families watched on in horror.
The balloon came down in calm weather near Carterton, a small town north of the capital, Wellington, and a popular area for ballooning, in New Zealand’s worst aviation disaster in more than 30 years.
As the balloon was preparing to land, it hit power lines, causing sparks in the basket carrying the pilot and 10 passengers, police inspector Brent Register said.
“At this point, two of the 11 people on board, believed to be a male and a female, appear to have jumped from the basket,” he said.
Register said the balloon then made a sharp ascent, a fire ignited on board and the balloon plummeted into a paddock. There were no survivors.
The passengers were confirmed as five couples from the Wellington region. Family members of some of those on board witnessed the tragedy, as they were on the ground waiting for their loved ones to land, the New Zealand Herald said.
Aurea Hickland, who lives next to the crash site, saw the accident happen as she was having breakfast.
“It was terrible,” she was quoted as saying by the Herald. “I said to my husband: ‘Oh no, the basket’s on fire, the basket’s on fire.’ We saw the two people jump and I said to Neil: ‘They won’t survive.’ It was just awful.”
“It shot up in the air and everyone was screaming — the screaming was just terrible — and then when the canopy went up in flames it just dropped,” she said. “Neil ran out and then came back with two of the family members [waiting for the balloon to land] and one was saying that they had bought the tickets for their parents for Christmas. They just kept saying: ‘How are we going to tell our children?’”
Another witness, David McKinlay, told reporters he looked up to see one side of the basket on fire and “all of a sudden there was just 10m of flames.”
“It was like a rocket coming down; it was just unbelievable,” he said.
McKinlay, who alerted the emergency services, said the balloon was about 150m up when it suddenly plummeted to the ground.
It was New Zealand’s worst aviation disaster since 1979, when an Air New Zealand jet crashed into Mount Erebus in Antarctica killing 257 people.
Police say they were alerted to the crash just before 7:30am. Ballooning companies in Carterton, about 150km north of Wellington, recommend early morning flights.
Reporters at the scene said the crash site had been cordoned off and only emergency workers and the families of those on board the balloon were being allowed through.
The balloon was believed to have been owned by Ballooning New Zealand director Lance Hopping, who has more than 1,000 hours of commercial ballooning experience.
New Zealand Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee said an investigation was under way to determine the cause of the crash and draw up recommendations to prevent a similar accident in future.
Hot air ballooning is tightly regulated in New Zealand and two years ago the civil aviation authority banned one company after “serious safety concerns” were uncovered in safety audits and spot checks.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary