Last updated: December 27, 2014


World News

19 killed as hot air balloon crashes in Luxor, Egypt

Warning: disturbing images. A deadly air balloon accident in Egypt was caught on amateur camera. Vision courtesy Al Jazeera TV.


The casualties included French, British and Japanese tourists, nine from Hong Kong and one Egyptian, a security official said.

Three survivors of the crash - a tourist and one Egyptian believed to be the badly burned pilot- were taken to a local hospital.

A Foreign Affairs and Trade Department spokeswoman has confirmed that no Australians were involved.

Balloon crash

The hot air balloon exploded over the ancient temple city of Luxor, the mangled wreckage crashing in a field. AFP PHOTO/STR

Witnesses have told of seeing people on fire and jumping from the balloon after it caught fire following an explosion on board.

"I saw tourists catching fire and they were jumping from the balloon. They were trying to flee the fire but it was on their bodies," Hassan Abdel-Rasoul, a farmer in al-Dhabaa, said. He said one of those he saw on fire was a visibly pregnant woman.

Photographer Christopher Michel was taking aerial photos from another balloon when the accident happened. He described the crash carnage on Twitter, where he posted a series of photographs showing the balloons ahead of the flight.

Balloon crash

The remains of one of the victims in a body bag at the scene. (AP Photo/Hagag Salama)




Balloon crash

Rescue workers inspect wreckage at the scene. (AP Photo/Hagag Salama)




Balloon crash in Luxor

Photo from Luxor balloon tragedy. Photo: @chrismichel, Twitter

It crashed into a sugarcane field outside al-Dhabaa village just west of Luxor, 510km south of Cairo.


The death toll was at 18 but a British tourist later died of his injuries.

Balloon crash

The fabric of the balloon largely remained intact. AFP PHOTO/STR




Balloon crash

Loss felt around the world

UK tourists Joe Bampton, 40, his girlfriend Suzanna Gyetvai, 34, and Yvonne Rennie were believed to have been killed in the crash.

The Daily Mail reports Mr Bampton and Ms Gyetvai both worked for an auction house in Chelsea, south London and were due back to work next week.

"They were two people very much in love and a lovely couple. They were companions to each other," said Nick Carter, who worked at the auction house with the couple.


"They worked here professionally and they were both artists.

"They lived together and have a whippet dog called Ollie. All of us are devastated and some are coping better than others. It's a horrible experience."

The other Briton, Ms Rennie from Perth in Scotland, is believed to have died at the scene. It is understoon her husband Michael survived the crash and was airlifted to a Cairo hospital.

Also among the dead yesterday were a Japanese couple in their 60s, among four Japanese who were killed, according to the head of Japan Travel Bureau's Egypt branch, Atsushi Imaeda.




Egypt's tourism sector is struggling

The crash was one of the worst accidents involving tourists in Egypt and is likely to push the key tourism industry deeper into recession.

Egypt's tourism industry has been devastated since the 18-day uprising in 2011 against autocrat leader Hosni Mubarak and the political turmoil that followed and continues to this day.







