Woman Dies After Hot Air Balloon Accident

Filed in archive Aviation News on October 8, 2007

A woman was killed in a hot air balloon accident during a balloon festival when the basket of balloon got stuck. According to a Yahoo! news article, Rosemary Wooley Phillips of California fell up 70 feet to her death. The balloon was caught on a line above a power line and when people on the ground tried to free it, the supporting line snapped and flung Phillips from the balloon.

There were four other passengers on board, but it's unknown if any of them suffer injuries. The balloon later crashed landed a few miles away.

The crash site is about three miles from the launch site for the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, a nine-day event that began Saturday and features mass ascensions of balloons, events for special-shaped balloons and competitions for pilots.

At the launch field, balloonists expressed condolences for the victim's family.

"It puts a bit of a cloud over the fiesta," said pilot Chris Hinde of Rugby, England, flying in Albuquerque for the 10th year. "People always ask if we should keep going. We made the decision not to fly today after we heard the news."

One woman was killed during the 1998 event when a balloon plowed into two sets of power lines before plummeting about 30 feet to the ground at Kirtland Air Force Base on Albuquerque's south side.

During the 1993 fiesta, two men were killed when their balloon hit power lines, severing the gondola, which plunged about 90 feet to the ground. Two other men died during the 1990 fiesta when their balloon crashed into power lines and burst into flames.

Four people died and five were injured during the 1982 fiesta when propane tanks on a large balloon exploded.

Balloonists, however, say such fatalities are rare and that their sport is not particularly dangerous.

"It's no riskier than driving a car," said pilot Anthony Haynes of Houston. "It's a sad thing when it happens. But when you see a car accident, you don't stop driving."