A mother and daughter said to have died in a fiery Texas hot air balloon crash Saturday had ties to Colorado Springs.
Authorities have not released the names of those who were killed in the crash near San Antonio, Texas, saying formally identifying them will be a “long process.” But friends and family on social media sites have identified and her daughter as two of the victims.
Christine Lyle, spokeswoman for Harrison School District 2 in Colorado Springs, said Paige Brabson graduated from Harrison High School in 2011 and her mother graduated from Sierra High School in 1986.
“According to others, that took place a few weeks ago,” Lyle said of Lorilee.
Paul Cantu, manager at the La Hacienda restaurant in San Antonio, told The Denver Post on Monday that Paige Brabson had been employed at the business.
“She was here for maybe about going on a year,” Cantu said. “She was just a great person.”
Cantu said Paige and her mother had moved to Texas from Colorado.
Messages left for Brabson family members were not immediately returned. One man, who identified himself on Facebook as the father of Paige Brabson’s young daughter, called the balloon crash a tragedy.
“All I ask for are prayers and good vibes not just for myself but the Brabson family as well,” he wrote.
A GoFundMe page created by a woman who said she was Paige’s grandmother said Paige was “uninsured and raising her 11-month-old child.”
“She was a hard and dedicated worker at La Hacienda restaurant in San Antonio,” the page says.
The happened about 7:45 a.m. on Saturday in a pasture near Lockhart, Texas, which is about 30 miles south of Austin. The land near the crash site is mostly farmland, with corn fields and grazing cattle. Cutting through that farmland is a row of massive high-tension electrical transmission lines, several stories tall. The site of the crash appears to be right below the overhead lines, though authorities haven’t provided further details about what happened.
Aerial photos showed an area of charred pasture beneath power lines.
One witness said it looked as if a fireball was erupting as the balloon went down. Authorities say the balloon crashed about eight miles from where it took off.
— NTSB Newsroom (@NTSB_Newsroom)
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Updated 12:26 p.m. on Aug. 1, 2016. Because of a source’s error, the graduating school for Lorilee Brabson was originally reported incorrectly. She graduated from Sierra High School.
