hot-air balloon explodes

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im not sure why this hasn't even been covered yet, but i feel really upset about it.
Those poor tourists didn't know what was coming did they? one minute they were up in the air and the next somewhere lying in bits and pieces. what kind of travel company is thomas cook anyway? i hope they've given some kind of compensation to the families involved with the suffering of their loved one.
If the eygyptian government hasn't failed to provide adequate employees to stop this sort of thing from taking place and by this i mean supplying better equipment. Then who will?
anyway, i hope that something gets done and fast about it. this sort of thing should not happen twice.but has anyway.

Hot air is not combustible. How can a hot air balloon explode?

If there was a leak or unlit burner the propane could have built up and pushed the air out.. but yea there are vents in the top and the big whooshing flame should have caught that?

From what I can tell there wasn't an "explosion" per say though..

yea well, i think a big gas explosion had something to do with it. it was like a big fireball kind of thing and when that happened, and im suspecting a smoker lit up when the gas was pumping hot air into the balloon then these poor people didnt stand a chance. not even to pray first.
We cant anger the truth any more than its ties in covering up the truth.

Last edited by glow on 27 Feb 2013, 7:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

yea well, i think a big gas explosion had something to do with it. it was like a big fireball kind of thing and when that happened, and im suspecting a smoker lit up when the gas was pumping hot air into the balloon then these poor people didnt stand a chance. not even to pray first.
remove this fellow from my sight before my eyes desert me once again

The balloon was on its way down to a gentle landing when one of the pilots and two others jumped out at 40 feet. The lessened load caused the balloon to shoot up hundreds of feet, where a fireball damage the envelope and caused the balloon to plummet.

Had those three people stayed inside, the balloon would have reached the ground before exploding, and more people may have survived - most were killed on impact, and not from the fire.

[quote="Fnord"]The balloon was on its way down to a gentle landing when one of the pilots and two others jumped out at 40 feet. The lessened load caused the balloon to shoot up hundreds of feet, where a fireball damage the envelope and caused the balloon to plummet.

Had those three people stayed inside, the balloon would have reached the ground [i]before[/i] exploding, and more people may have survived - most were killed on impact, and not from the fire.[/quote]


the point is people died, one from injury and another one was on fire who happened to be pregnant so its not where or what or how it occured that matters much now, but if you want the data here i'll show you the remains.

'According to initial indications, the balloon was in the process of landing after 7am (6pm NZT) when a cable got caught around a helium tube and a fire erupted, according to an investigator with the state prosecutor's office. '

The balloon then ascended rapidly, the investigator said.

The fire detonated a gas canister and the balloon plunged about 300 meters to the ground, crashing in a sugar cane field outside al-Dhabaa village just west of Luxor, a security official said.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/africa/835 ... t-on-video

so the passengers left behind were in sheer terror for the few seconds until they got dashed upon the ground. i can't think of a worse way to die other than a long and protracted agony.

A view to a kill indeed , RIP

Helium doesn't burn, nor is it used in hot-air balloons.

Something else happened ...

well, whats done is done. which in hindsight is not alot. i wish somebody would hurry up and carry out an investigation into the balloon crash which had the invariable critiscism attached to the failure of not checking the gas canisters inside the balloon first, which measures the amount of helium inside, could have had a test done to monitor the high amount of risks involved that took so many lives.
If id had a choice i would probably have risked it by jumping out of the balloon and into the nile.

Last edited by glow on 28 Feb 2013, 6:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

why can't hot air balloons have parachutes atop the balloon in case it fails?

... Maybe they meant hydrogen?



I don't think parachutes would have helped in this situation.

Either way, it is really sad.

Did you edit my quote and change "gas" to "helium"??

Maybe the person who filed the report was misinformed and did not check the facts. Either that, or the balloon operators loaded the wrong gas onto the balloon.

Hot-air balloons use ... guess what ... hot air for lift! A hot air balloon uses a single-layered, fabric gas bag (the "envelope"), with an opening at the bottom called the mouth or throat. Attached to the envelope is a basket, or gondola, for carrying the passengers. Mounted above the basket and centered in the mouth is the "burner," which injects a flame into the envelope, heating the air within. The heater or burner is fueled by propane, a liquefied gas stored in pressure vessels, similar to high pressure forklift cylinders. Propane by itself does not provide any lift; instead, the heated air inside the envelope makes the balloon buoyant since heated air has a lower density than the relatively cold air outside the envelope.

The only stored gas on board that flight should have been propane, not helium or hydrogen. Helium doesn't burn, and hydrogen burns too quickly, and is more difficult to control than propane.

^ Thank you for explaining that.