Vancouver, British Columbia – A hot-air balloon burst into flames over western Canada, burning a woman and her adult daughter to death while their families looked on, officials said Saturday.
Other passengers leaped to the ground, some with their clothes in flames, witnesses said.
Eleven people in the balloon were seriously injured when it crashed Friday evening in a recreational vehicle park near the U.S border in Surrey, British Columbia, a suburb of Vancouver. There were 12 passengers and a pilot on board, police and witnesses said.
John Kageorge, who works for Fantasy Balloon Charters, said the fire started as the balloon was about to launch. Kageorge said three passengers did not get out of the basket before it became airborne.
“One person jumped from an unsafe distance, two stories in the air or more,” Kageorge said. The mother and daughter did not jump, he said, although two of their family members made it out of the basket.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Roger Morrow confirmed the deaths and said relatives of the two passengers killed witnessed the fire.
“It’s just tragic. They watched it unfold before their eyes,” Morrow said of the family.
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 the ground in the RV park, leaving a tail of thick, black smoke in its wake.
The cause of the accident was not immediately known. Weather conditions were clear at the time of the sunset flight.
Smoke could be seen billowing from the crash site from miles away.
Perry Kendall said he saw what looked like something out of a movie.
“It was horrifying, just looking at people screaming and jumping out of there,” Kendall said. “Some of them, I think, had fire on their clothes. It was just awful.”
