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Three people missing after hot air balloon catches fire in Virginia At least one dead and two missing in Virginia hot-air balloon accident
(about 4 hours later)
Three people are missing after a hot air balloon caught fire during a ballooning festival in the US on Friday. The body of one occupant of a hot-air balloon that caught fire and crashed has been recovered as police searched on Saturday for two others feared dead, Virginia State Police said.
One local described hearing calls for help from the balloon's basket after it appeared to hit a power line in Doswell, about 30 miles north of Richmond in the state of Virginia. The three were in a balloon on Friday night that witnesses said crashed amid screams for help.
Rescue crews said they were still searching for the pilot, two passengers and any signs of wreckage. The body was found in a heavily wooded area shortly before midnight, state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said on Saturday. The balloon and gondola carrying the pilot and two passengers have not been found, she said.
Witnesses posted photos online showing a balloon in mid-air with its basket engulfed in flames and a trail of smoke spilling into the sky. Because of the time elapsed since the crash, which occurred about 8pm Friday, the search for two other occupants has shifted from a rescue to a recovery operation, Geller said. More searchers were called in on Saturday.
"They were just screaming for anybody to help them," local resident Carrie Hager-Bradley told a local NBC affiliate. Police received eyewitness reports that two occupants either fell or jumped from the burning balloon after it struck the power line.
Another resident, Debra Ferguson, told a local newspaper she looked up after other balloons had landed safely near her house. She said she heard cries of: "Oh my god," and saw a surge of flames. Carrie Hager-Bradley said she saw the balloon in flames on her way home from the grocery store and heard people yelling, according to WWBT TV.
"As soon as we looked up, the thing blew up right there … it was like a match, poof, and then it was gone," Ferguson told the Free Lance-Star, of Fredericksburg. "They were just screaming for anybody to help them," the station quoted her as saying. "'Help me, help me, sweet Jesus, help. I'm going to die. Oh my God, I'm going to die,'" Hager-Bradley said she heard one person screaming.
The balloon "apparently hit a power line" at 7.30pm local time said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen. The crash occurred near the Meadow Event Park in rural Caroline County, where the Mid-Atlantic Balloon Festival was being held. The area is about 15 miles north of Richmond.
It had been taking part in the Mid-Atlantic Balloon Festival and crashed near a park, organisers said in a statement on their website, quoting Virginia state police. The festival was scheduled to begin officially on Saturday, but was holding a special kickoff event Friday for a limited number of people. Organisers canceled the rest of the festival.
"No wreckage has been found yet, and there are no confirmed injuries or fatalities," the statement added. Some hot air balloons landed safely in Debra Ferguson's yard, the Free Lance-Star of Fredericksburg reported.
A ground search was under way involving state police, the Federal Aviation Administration, and local law enforcement and emergency workers, officials said. She said one of the men in the balloons pointed up at another still in the air and said he thought it might be in trouble.
"State police report that bad weather elsewhere in the Richmond vicinity has grounded air search for the time being," organisers wrote on the website. "As soon as we looked up, the thing blew up right there," Ferguson told the newspaper. "All I heard was, 'Oh my God, Oh my God,' and all you saw was the top of the balloon still flying, but all of the basket was gone. All of the flames just disappeared. ... It was like a match – poof – and then it was gone."
The festival was hosting a special "Friday flights happy hour" for a limited audience from 6pm to 9pm local time, according to organisers. More than 20 hot air balloon teams from across the United States were due to take part in the festival at The Meadow Event Park in Caroline County, organisers said. Caroline County resident Paula Dustin said she and her family and a friend were watching the balloons inflate and take off when they saw one in the distance that appeared to be in distress.
A spokesman said the remainder of the events on Saturday and Sunday have been cancelled. "We saw a glow, and you could tell the bottom of the balloon was in flames," Dustin was quoted by the newspaper as saying.