Hot Air Balloon crash in Egypt (Luxor)
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Hot Air Balloon crash in Egypt (Luxor)
Tabs please !
Absolutely awful. It appears that a handling line got caught up in one of the propane hoses which at first glance, reads as if there was something fundamentally wrong with the way the rig was assembled or how the flight was conducted.
This should not happen under any circumstances. Those hoses should be exposed for the shortest possible distance before being fed up to the load frame in which the burner assembly sits by shrouding them in the padding that wraps around the load wires and the polythene uprights that supports the load frame while the basket is on the ground. Any "slack" should be tucked away where nobody can grab hold of it. The pre-flight briefing should be very direct, thorough and cover what to hold and what not to hold.
The pilot academic qualifications for flying balloons is comparable to those for PPL and in the case of a commercial operation such as this, CPL. They are quite challenging and in the UK at least, there is a significant overlap in the syllabuses for air law, meteorology, human factors etc. Much of it is identical. I and about a dozen other pilots sat our exams over a weekend at a well known manufacturer and was invigilated by one of the biggest names in the business. There was an Egyptian chap who had travelled to the UK for his exams. By the end of the weekend, most of us had passed everything first time and a few individuals had single re-sits to take at a future date. The Egyptian gentleman didn't pass one.
The use of a handling line to control the direction of a balloon on landing is very much reserved for light conditions as a balloon, especially one that was probably around 300,000 cubic feet, has a huge amount of momentum. It also has the surface area of a very large racing yacht. The risk of injury to the ground handling crew is significant and the handling line should only be used to move a balloon clear of trees, fences etc. A good pilot never puts himself in that situation, especially a commercial one. It's far better to land the thing properly and walk across fields, even if the landing is firm or fast.
Alaa Mahmoud, a sales manager for another local balloon company, Magic Horizon, told the Guardian newspaper that the accident happened as crews tried to anchor the balloon to the ground using ropes hanging from the basket. The ropes became entangled in the tubes leading to the gas cylinder and severed them, after which the gas was ignited, he added.
The pilot academic qualifications for flying balloons is comparable to those for PPL and in the case of a commercial operation such as this, CPL. They are quite challenging and in the UK at least, there is a significant overlap in the syllabuses for air law, meteorology, human factors etc. Much of it is identical. I and about a dozen other pilots sat our exams over a weekend at a well known manufacturer and was invigilated by one of the biggest names in the business. There was an Egyptian chap who had travelled to the UK for his exams. By the end of the weekend, most of us had passed everything first time and a few individuals had single re-sits to take at a future date. The Egyptian gentleman didn't pass one.
The use of a handling line to control the direction of a balloon on landing is very much reserved for light conditions as a balloon, especially one that was probably around 300,000 cubic feet, has a huge amount of momentum. It also has the surface area of a very large racing yacht. The risk of injury to the ground handling crew is significant and the handling line should only be used to move a balloon clear of trees, fences etc. A good pilot never puts himself in that situation, especially a commercial one. It's far better to land the thing properly and walk across fields, even if the landing is firm or fast.
The ropes became entangled in the tubes leading to the gas cylinder and severed them, after which the gas was ignited, he added.
Last edited by atakacs; 26th Feb 2013 at 17:22.
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Very sad, but if these operators work to the same standards as the national carrier, not surprising. Nothing would induce me to set foot in that country nor on any transport operated by Egyptians.
BBC online news reports" landing cable got caught around a helium tube and a fire broke out on board"!
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BBC reporting that some passengers jumped out when the fire first broke out at ~3m off the ground.
The passenger brief along with telling them not to touch flying wires or gas lines, should include the extremely important message that passengers should not get out until told. It seems that in the panic this was ignored and has potentially lead to the unnecessary death of 19 people. I have to be blunt; for those passengers that survived by jumping, they direrctly contributed to the deaths of the other passengers.
A handful of people jumping out causes the balloon to become extremely bouyant and it will rocket off the ground. Using some rough maths, the loss of a single passenger would require the pilot to lose ~300 cubic feet of air or 1% of the total. As the pilot you'd have to decide between isolating the fire or dumping air to stay near the ground.
If a gas line was indeed severed leaving the connector in place then the pressure valve would remain open requiring the pilot to isolate the gas manually at the tank controls. Newer tanks have rapid shut-off valves (a lever), the older tanks have a traditional stop-cock rotary valve which takes 2 or 3 turns to shut-off. In these situations it is almost inevitable that you will receive burns, but if dealt with promptly should not result in anything more serious.
The passenger brief along with telling them not to touch flying wires or gas lines, should include the extremely important message that passengers should not get out until told. It seems that in the panic this was ignored and has potentially lead to the unnecessary death of 19 people. I have to be blunt; for those passengers that survived by jumping, they direrctly contributed to the deaths of the other passengers.
A handful of people jumping out causes the balloon to become extremely bouyant and it will rocket off the ground. Using some rough maths, the loss of a single passenger would require the pilot to lose ~300 cubic feet of air or 1% of the total. As the pilot you'd have to decide between isolating the fire or dumping air to stay near the ground.
If a gas line was indeed severed leaving the connector in place then the pressure valve would remain open requiring the pilot to isolate the gas manually at the tank controls. Newer tanks have rapid shut-off valves (a lever), the older tanks have a traditional stop-cock rotary valve which takes 2 or 3 turns to shut-off. In these situations it is almost inevitable that you will receive burns, but if dealt with promptly should not result in anything more serious.
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If the BBC report is true, it would appear the pilot jumped immediately. The fate of the passengers was inevitable from that point.
"The pilot and a British passenger jumped to safety when the fire erupted, which affected the balance of the balloon, sending more heat into its "envelope" and causing it to climb rapidly"
"The pilot and a British passenger jumped to safety when the fire erupted, which affected the balance of the balloon, sending more heat into its "envelope" and causing it to climb rapidly"
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A pilot jumping out knowing in the back of their mind that the balloon would climb with an uncontained fire could be argued to be gross negligence or manslaughter.
Did this balloon have a rapid deflation system? Was it flying single pilot with more than 19 passengers?
I wonder what further details the investigation will reveal.
Did this balloon have a rapid deflation system? Was it flying single pilot with more than 19 passengers?
I wonder what further details the investigation will reveal.
Last edited by BHenderson; 26th Feb 2013 at 23:43.
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Sky News also repeated the helium nonsense many times. I think it started as a translation from an eyewitness Egyptian farmer's report. But you'd think big news organisations would have some sub editors to check stuff and instruct any of their reporters who are not clever enough to sort it out for themselves.
Sympathy for the friends and families - and for the Brit who jumped and has almost no injuries but a dead wife.
An explosion was reported - anyone know if that was when it crashed to the ground or earlier?
Sympathy for the friends and families - and for the Brit who jumped and has almost no injuries but a dead wife.
An explosion was reported - anyone know if that was when it crashed to the ground or earlier?
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similar accidents have happened in Germany in the past, in (luckily) much smaller balloons. I'm (was) a balloon pilot myself (haven't flown in 5 years), but only for smaller ones, and I think those big balloons with >15 pax irresponsible, no matter what country!
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Dubaian,
Follow the link to the video above, you can see the balloon quite high up and smoke eminating from the basket, then the ballon colapses quite sudenly and the the basket and ballon remains fall rapidly to earth. Explosion probably on impact.
I suspect from seeing that, that the pilot /passenger who jumped must of done so before the balloon climbed to any height.
BHenderson I think your thoughts could be on the right lines.
Follow the link to the video above, you can see the balloon quite high up and smoke eminating from the basket, then the ballon colapses quite sudenly and the the basket and ballon remains fall rapidly to earth. Explosion probably on impact.
I suspect from seeing that, that the pilot /passenger who jumped must of done so before the balloon climbed to any height.
BHenderson I think your thoughts could be on the right lines.
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Thanks PT6Driver - you're probably correct. It seems that the Brit pax is now the sole survivor. News media are reporting that - without actually saying that the badly burned Egyptian pilot (who also jumped) has died.
A pilot jumping out knowing in the back of their mind that the balloon would climb with an uncontained fire could be argued to be gross negligence or manslaughter.
A bit different from my former colleague Mike, Pilot killed after Goodyear blimp plunges to the ground in flames in Germany | Mail Online
Tabs please !
If the handling line was out and tension applied to that line was the cause of the hose rupture then the balloon would have been close to the ground. If the pilot jumped and lived then you can make your own assumptions about the height at which he departed the aircraft and the resulting change in the amount of free lift.
Tabs please !
I think those big balloons with >15 pax irresponsible, no matter what country
Be careful who you fly with.
Responsibility
It's been remarked here that the pilot who, along with one of the passengers jumped out of the gondola, is culpable because the reduction in weight caused the balloon to ascend rapidly, dooming the remaining occupants. Well, "casting the first stone" is an ever-popular competition on internet forums I guess. However I'd like to know how much rational control any of us might be likely to have whilst being incinerated by a propane conflagration?
As for the comments in the media about "helium"... I'm not one of those who is constantly slagging off journalists ("journo's" [sic] in PPRUNE usage) but it does make you wonder about their general educational levels if they assume that a hot air balloon uses helium.
Skridlov
As for the comments in the media about "helium"... I'm not one of those who is constantly slagging off journalists ("journo's" [sic] in PPRUNE usage) but it does make you wonder about their general educational levels if they assume that a hot air balloon uses helium.
Skridlov