Egypt hot air balloon crash deaths up to 19
LUXOR, Egypt — Health officials say the death toll from a hot air balloon accident in Egypt has risen to 19 after a British tourist died of his injuries.
Another British tourist and the balloon's Egyptian pilot are the only survivors. State radio reported that the Egyptian has severe burns on his body.
The health officials spoke on condition of anonymity today because they were not authorized to speak to press. British tour operator Thomas Cook confirmed that the Briton died in the hospital.
The accident occurred when a hot air balloon flying over Egypt's ancient city of Luxor caught fire and crashed into a sugar cane field after dawn. The casualties included French, British, Belgian, Hungarian, Japanese nationals and nine tourists from Hong Kong, according to Luxor's governor.
Bodies of the dead tourists were scattered across the field around the remnants of the balloon.
The official said foul play has been ruled out.
Egypt's civil aviation minister, Wael el-Maadawi, flew to Luxor to lead the investigation into the crash.
The head of Japan Travel Bureau's Egypt branch, Atsushi Imaeda, confirmed that four Japanese died in the crash. He said two were a couple in their 60s from Tokyo. Details on the other two were not immediately available.
In Hong Kong, a travel agency said nine of the tourists that were aboard the balloon were natives of the semiautonomous Chinese city. The nine, he said, included five women and four men from three families.
They were traveling with six other Hong Kong residents on a 10-day tour of Egypt.
Ng said an escort of the nine tourists watched the balloon from the ground catching fire around 7 a.m. and plunging to the ground two minutes later.
Hot air ballooning, usually at sunrise over the famed Karnak and Luxor temples as well as the Valley of the Kings, is a popular pastime for tourists visiting the area.
The site of the accident has seen past crashes. In 2009, 16 tourists were injured when their balloon struck a cellphone transmission tower. A year earlier, seven tourists were injured in a similar crash.Egypt's tourism industry has been decimated since the 18-day uprising in 2011 against autocrat leader Hosni Mubarak and the political turmoil that followed and continues to this day.Luxor's hotels are currently about 25 percent full in what is supposed to be the peak of the winter season.Scared off by the political turmoil and tenuous security that has followed the uprising, the number of tourists coming to Egypt fell to 9.8 million in 2011 from 14.7 million the year before, and revenues plunged 30 percent to $8.8 billion.Poverty swelled at the country's fastest rate in Luxor, which is highly dependent on visitors to its monumental temples and the tombs of King Tutankhamun and other pharaohs.In 2011, 39 percent of its population lived on less than $1 a day, compared to 18 percent in 2009, according to government figures.The toll puts the crash among the deadliest involving a recreation hot air balloon.In 1989, 13 people were killed when their hot air balloon collided with another over the Australian outback near the town of Alice Springs.
