Sixteen die as balloon explodes: aftermath video
Disaster looms: the balloon before the crash.
Sixteen people have died in one of the deadliest hot air balloon accidents on record.
It’s understood the disaster occurred when the balloon struck power lines and burst into flames before plunging into a Texas field.
The US Federal Aviation Administration said the crash on Saturday happened near Lockhart, about 50km south of Austin.
The FAA did not comment on fatalities, but Caldwell County Sheriff Daniel Law said there did not appear to be any survivors and that his office was working to determine the identities of those aboard.
A spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety later confirmed that 16 people were dead.
Emergency staff in Texas said the fire hit the basket portion of the hot air balloon.
The National Transportation Safety Board offered no details on what may have caused the accident, which occurred on a clear day.
Texas DPS Trooper Robbie Barrera, centre, comforts Sheriff Daniel Law at the crash scene. Photo: AAP
But a spokesman at the scene said a Federal Bureau of Investigation team was being dispatched to help in evidence gathering.
The spokesman said the balloon probably belonged to a tour group that offers hot air balloon rides.
Margaret Wylie, a resident in the area, told reporters she believed that before the balloon crashed, it hit high power lines, which caused popping sounds like a gun going off.
“It went up like a big fireball,” she told reporters, adding the chase group for the balloon arrived on the scene after the sheriff’s department.
The crash of the balloon is the deadliest on record in the Western Hemisphere, said Jeff Chatterton, a spokesman for the Balloon Federation of North America.
“There are thousands of balloons that go up every year,” he said. “This is unspeakably tragic but it is rather unique.”
More than 150 commercial hot air balloon companies operate in North America, he said.
More than a dozen police vehicles could be seen at the site of the crash, which the FAA said occurred at about 7.40am.
The accident occurred about three years after 19 people, mostly Asian and European tourists, were killed in a hot air balloon crash in Luxor, Egypt.
A year before that incident, a hot air balloon burst into flames and crashed in New Zealand, killing all 11 people on board.
With AAP
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