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Hot air balloon rides are not on any of my bucket lists..NOPE!

We, me and my best bestie are totally going to kayak with the whales though.
 
There must have been a really unexpected wind change. :eek::nailbiting:

According to officials, the balloon crashed into a pasture after striking a high-voltage power line and catching fire.
[...]
The balloon company has been identified as "Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides".

The balloon's pilot was Skip Nichols. Nichols would fly all the time -- seven days a week, travel between San Antonio, Austin, Houston.
http://abc13.com/news/hot-air-balloon-crash-kills-at-least-16-people-near-austin/1450063/
[doublepost=1469901612,1469901494][/doublepost]@lithiumgirl did you see this amazing video? Talk about up close and personal!

 
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-killed-16-was-on-drugs-and-had-five-dwi-raps
The pilot of a hot-air balloon that crashed last summer in Texas, killing himself and 15 sight-seeing passengers, had taken a cocktail of prohibited drugs before liftoff including the opiate pain-killer oxycodone, according to government documents.

Alfred “Skip” Nichols was able to continue flying people for hire in spite of being convicted five times for driving while intoxicated and three times for drug offenses. The incident revealed lax regulations on balloon operators and a regulatory loophole that made it difficult to take enforcement action against him, according to documents prepared for a National Transportation Safety Board hearing.
[....]
The NTSB will examine broad safety issues raised by the accident, including why Nichols took off in spite of a report of questionable weather. It will also consider how Nichols, who had served two prison terms for drug and alcohol violations and was also being treated for medical conditions that should have prohibited him from flying, slipped through the cracks and whether additional regulations are needed.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates the industry, has so far declined to add tighter rules on balloon flights, in spite of an NTSB formal recommendation in 2014 to give balloon passengers “a similar level of safety oversight as passengers of air tour airplane and helicopter operations.”

The balloon industry doesn’t support additional regulations, Dean Carlton, president of the nonprofit Balloon Federation of America, said in an interview.
[....]
Nichols suffered multiple medical problems including type II diabetes, depression and chronic pain from fibromyalgia. Some of those conditions should have prohibited him from operating an aircraft.

As part of his treatment, he was taking 13 prescription medicines, many of which are also prohibited for pilots at the controls. A toxicology test found seven different drugs in Nichols’ blood and urine that were prohibited by the FAA, including oxycodone and the sedative diazepam, also known as Valium. Such drugs can impair brain function and motor controls, according to the NTSB documents.

While pilots are prohibited from flying after taking those drugs, balloon pilots are exempt from having to receive the periodic medical checkups required for other commercial flight crews. Therefore, the agency was less likely to discover the drug use.
[....]
FAA-required medical exams is the chief way for pilots to disclose convictions for driving while impaired.

Nichols had one such medical exam in 1996 and he didn’t reveal the first of his driving violations, a 1985 infraction in Missouri.

U.S. law requires pilots to notify the FAA of such infractions whether they get an agency-sanctioned medical exam or not. Nichols didn’t do so.

The pilot’s actions associated with the weather are also under scrutiny. While the balloon was supposed to fly only in clear conditions, photos taken on the craft shortly before the accident showed clouds obscuring the ground and the forecast had predicted clouds and fog.

In a recorded phone call with an FAA weather station, Nichols was told, “Those clouds may be a problem for you.”

“Well, we just fly in between them,” Nichols replied. “We find a hole and we go.”

Out of a panel of six balloon industry representatives at the hearing, all said they would not have flown that day based on the weather report Nichols received.
[....]
Balloon pilots can get a license to fly people for hire with only 20 hours experience and don’t have to undergo the routine recurrent training required of other commercial pilots, according to the memo.

“The oversight of banner towing operations is of a higher FAA priority than the administration’s oversight of an industry that flies thousands of citizens annually,” the memo said.
 
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