Fox News
Expand
Browse All Video
Watch Live

You're watching...

Hot air balloon explosion leaves over a dozen dead

Details

  • Description

    Leland Vittert reports from Jerusalem

  • Duration 2:42
  • Date

Clips

Also in this playlist...

Latest News

Auto-advance: ON

Auto-advance
View All

Transcript

This transcript is automatically generated

Awful situation where -- hot air balloon filled with tourists exploded in the sky.

And then fell a thousand feet to the ground imagine how frightening.

This was these are some of the -- photos from the launch site where the victims had taken off just moments earlier.

And then at least nineteen tourists from Europe and Asia were killed in this tragic accident.

After the balloon caught fire it -- an explosion in the gas canister.

-- -- is live in Jerusalem so we live what exactly happened where is this accident.

Terrifying for the folks who -- inside this balloon -- they were up in about a thousand feet.

Over the Egyptian city of -- that's down in the south where a lot of the historical sites are.

Pyramids flying over the Nile River early this morning and that is -- the line that goes from that.

Gas canisters on those balloons to the -- they actually heats up the hot air somehow leaked.

And then the gas began to explode with a balloon on fire and then down there in two.

The basket where all those people wore it fell about a thousand feet from where it caught fire -- -- crashed into a sugar cane field there's not much left.

Of the -- in the basket and we're told that a number of the bodies are recovered were also in fairly bad shape at least eighteen people died.

Some French Chinese also British citizens.

One of the survivors is actually the pilot Martha -- we're sure that the authorities are gonna start talking to.

He survived by is the -- was just a couple of feet off the ground.

He jumped out in landed -- sugar cane field evidently saved his life sadly that didn't happen for his passenger Martha.

This horrible horrible story.

-- you know obviously.

There's been a lot of pressure on tourism in Egypt anyway because of the political situation there exist have also ahead and the bad effect on it.

Most certainly this is very scary doesn't say a lot about the safety standards there in Egypt -- -- hot air balloon industry which is a big tourism draw.

They are down and lots or something a lot of people did they now grounded.

All the hot air balloon is giving an idea how desperate the situation there -- in Egypt where tourism is a lifeblood for the economy.

Right now is high season down in Luxor.

In the hotels are only 25%.

Failed so with the revolution the violence the unrest you had the first real strangle.

On the Egyptian economy and now this is certainly double whammy for tourism right at the time when they're trying to get is many tourists in there as they can't just simply feed families.

And those who rely on it for their incomes.

-- tragic loss for all of those tourists family -- Leland thank you very much.

Load More