Louis Blériot of 1909. Like some of the other prizes offered by the paper, it was widely seen as nothing more than a way to gain cheap publicity: the Paris newspaper "Le Matin" commenting that there was no chance of the prize being won. The English Channel had been crossed by an unmanned hydrogen balloon in 1784 and a manned crossing by Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries followed in 1785. Blériot, who intended to fly across the Channel in his Type XI monoplane, had three rivals for the prize, the most serious being Hubert Latham, a French national of English extraction flying
2013 Luxor hot air balloon crash body. Doctors at the Luxor International Hospital said that many of the dead suffered severe internal injuries and severe burns. After news of the tragedy broke, Governor of Luxor Ezzat Saad banned hot air balloon flights in his jurisdiction until further notice. Egypt's civil aviation minister, Wael el-Maadawi, followed by suspending balloon flights nationwide. In a statement, President Mohamed Morsi expressed his "deepest condolences and sympathy for the families of those who lost their lives in this tragic incident." National government spokesman Alaa Hadidi said a committee would be formed to investigate the accident. The bodies of the victims were