Fuel leak caused Luxor balloon crash: Aviation ministry

[DJKeefy]

The hot air balloon accident that killed 19 tourists in the Upper Egyptian city of Luxor in February 2013 was caused by a fuel leak, the civil aviation ministry has said in its final report.

The report, issued on Tuesday, said a fuel leak in one of the tubes feeding the balloon's burner was ignited, which caused a huge fire that seriously injured the pilot and propelled the balloon into an uncontrollable ascent until it eventually collapsed as the fire spread and crashed.

The report ordered new precautions to prevent such accidents from recurring.

Tourists from the UK, France, Belgium, Hungary, Japan, Hong Kong and Egypt were among the deceased. The pilot and a British tourist were the only survivors.

Hot air ballooning was briefly halted in the tourist hub but resumed two months after the accident.

In March, former civil aviation minister Wael El-Maadawy said the company responsible for the accident – SkyTours – would not resume ballooning activities until investigations were concluded.

The previous hot air balloon accident in Luxor, which left 16 people injured in 2009, led to a halt in all air balloon activity for six months until security measures were implemented.

Other accidents took place in 2007 and 2008, but caused no casualties.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/91049.aspx

[Bombay]

Yes no mention of what caused the fuel leak iirc it was a mooring line while landing.

[Billy_whiz]

Anybody know what happened to the pilot? The last report I heard, months ago, was that after he left hospital he was arrested and taken to prison. Hope he is not still in there

[Hafiz]

Its a bit unfair because it is a very brief report but the screamer is the absence of any mention of human intervention or negligence. Just a fuel leak. Will no-one be held responsible? On the other hand maybe the fuel leak was an entirely 'spontaneous' event.

I thought the story at the time was about power lines causing the crash.

If its a fuel leak that points at construction, maintenance or, maybe, piloting. Note that the report leaves out the standard cop out of act of god (lightening, storm etc). Given no act of god human fault is more than likely and any charges would be criminal. It will be interesting to see whether the relatives of the dead and the injured are satisfied with this report and, if not, whether their embassies will stir from somnolence to help them get the truth.

Given 4 'incidents' and one every year from 2007 to 2009 there seems to be a pattern here but we will never know because (it seems from the brief report) there is no connection with the previous 'incidents'. In my experience if things happen regularly there is a 'regular' cause but finding that out would mean having to stretch back to 2007 and to connect the dots if dots exist.

If no-one is held accountable in this case it will send a message to others of impunity and bad practice will continue as it (seemingly) has since 2007.

Maybe this report is just a technical analysis and it is now for the police to investigate responsibility. Or maybe not. Can anyone remember whether anyone back to 2007 was either charged or held responsible.