At Least 8 People Dead After Hot Air Balloon Catches Fire Mid-Air, Forcing Passangers to Jump to Escape The Blaze

Need to Know

• The Hot Air Balloon Caught Fire Mid-Air in Brazil on June 21

• At Least Eight of the 21 Passangers Died in the Incident, Which the Local Governor Description As a tragedy

• The Source of the Blaze Was a Back-Up Burner Located in the Basket of the Aircraft, According to the Pilot

At Least Eight People Died After the Hot Air Balloon Caught Fire Mid-Air, Forcing Passangers to Jump Out of the Basket to Avoid the Flames.

The Fire Occred in the Skies of Praia Grande – the municipality in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil, and the popular destination for Hot Air Ballooning – On the Morning of Saturday, June 21, According to Jorginho Mello, The State’s Governor.

At the time of the incident, There Were 21 Total People on Board the Tourist Flight, Eight of Whom Have Since Been Confermed Dead, Mello Said in An X postWhich was originally penned in Portuguese. The 13 other Passangers Survived, The Santa Catarina Government Added. (The Santa Catarina Military Fire Brigade Later Shared the Same Fatality Count for the Incident.)

MELLO SAID Officials Are Currently Continuing to Monitor the situation.

Onlookers captured the tragedy in videos Taken from Several Angles. In footage posted by Now portalsmoke could be seen billowing from the hot air balloon, while flames envelope the basket.

Two Passangers Next Appeared to Jump or Fall from the Aircraft, One After The Other, and the Balloon Then Deflated Rapidly, Sending The Aircraft, Still Ablaze, Hurdling to the Ground

The footage Also Showed that the basket ended up detaiching from the balloon shortly before it touched down.

Describing the scene to the local newspaper Jornal ReasonOne Eyewitness Said That After The Balloon Cauht Fire, People Jummpd to Escape The Blaze. Some Jummped per the Pilot’s Orders, The Newspaper Said.

After the pilot Realized the Hot Air Balloon Was On Fire, He Attempted to Descend As Quickly as Possible and Told Passangers to Jump When the Aircraft Got Close to the Ground, Jornal Reason Reported.

Some of the Passangers Managed to Jump and Survive, While Others Did Not Escape The Basket Fire in Time, per the Brazilian Newspaper.

According to newspaper Reason, The Pilot Said the Blaze Was Caused by a Backup Torch Inside the Basket, Which Generated a Spontaneous Flame.

The Pilot Told Authorories, per the newspaper, that he is not Sure if the Spare – Which is Kept aboard the aircraft in case the main burner Fails – Ignited on It Own, but it did Start the Fire.

The Identities of the Passangers, as well as the status of the survivors’ health, have not yet been release publicly.

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MELLO SHARED A STATEMENT OF SUPPORT FOR THE VICTIMS AND THEIR FAMILIES IN A video On x Shortly After His Initial Post.

In His Statement, The Santa Catarina Government Expressed His Condolences To Those Affected by the Fatal Incident, Which He described A TRAGEDY, and Pledged the State Government’s Support.

Brazil’s President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, also Expressed His Support in a statement of His own.

“I WOULD LIKE TO EXPRESS MY SOLIDARITY WITH THE FAMILIES OF THE VICTIMS OF THE BALLOON ACCIDENT THIS OCCURRED THIS SATURDAY MORNING IN SANTA CATARINA,” The President Wrote in an x ​​Post, Originally Penned in Portuguese.

He continues. “I WOULD LIKE TO PLACE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AT THE DISPOSAL OF THE VICTIMS AND THE STATE AND MUNICIPAL FORCES THAT ARE Working on the Rescue and CARE FOR THE SURVIVORS.”

Read the original article on People