Four people died when a hot-air balloon crashed in the Arizona desert early Sunday.
A group of skydivers jumped from a hot air balloon floating over the Arizona desert just moments before it crash-landed Sunday, leaving four of its remaining passengers dead and another person critically injured, police announced.
The crash was reported around 7:50 a.m. near the town of Eloy, about 60 miles south of Phoenix. There were four passengers and a pilot on board. Four people were killed and a fifth was hospitalized in critical condition.
Witnesses say skydivers were on board the gondola and jumped off prior to the problem developing with the balloon.
The aircraft was carrying 13 adults – a balloon operator, four passengers and eight skydivers, according to Eloy Mayor Micah Powell.
Shortly after all the skydivers completed their planned jump from the aircraft, “something catastrophic occurred with the balloon, causing it to crash to the ground,” said Eloy Police Chief Byron Gwaltney at a news conference.
Though the exact cause of the crash is unknown, preliminary information suggests it occurred after the balloon had an “unspecified problem with its envelope,” said the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the incident.
A witness on the ground told authorities that in the seconds leading up to the impact “the material of the hot air balloon was just straight up and down, and the impact was fairly, fairly large,” the mayor said.
One person died on the scene and three other people died after being taken to a hospital, according to the mayor. The person who was critically injured was transported to a trauma center in Phoenix, he said.
The family of Katie Bartrom, 28, identified her as one of the people who died in the incident.
Bartrom was a registered nurse from Indiana who loved skydiving and adventure.
There’s no word yet on exactly what caused the crash, but the NTSB and the FAA are investigating.
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