Ban Hot Air Balloons

[exotix]

*Breaking*


http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hot-air-balloon-carrying-least-16-people-crashes-texas-n620211

http://i66.tinypic.com/a8uwj.png


http://media2.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2016_30/1646091/160730-lockhart-texas-mn-1155_393aa45a175958d4462d4a19e096a4b5.nbcnews-ux-2880-1000.jpg

[AZ Jim]

Why ban them? I believe they pose little threat. Maybe I am wrong but I hear little about their mishaps.

[Oboe]

I thought this was about the democrat convention.

But I used to race motocross in Lockhart. One nasty track.

[Standing Wolf]

You couldn't get me up in one of those things for $10,000. Well, I don't know - maybe with the right medications. Even then, you'd have to strap me in and I'd have my eyes closed the whole time.

[Bo-4]

Horrid way to go .. but you'll pry our balloons from our cold dead hands out here in B-town.

http://blog.petersontoyota.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/001-2014-Best-Over-All-Image-SOB-Balloon-Classic.jpg

[Oboe]

You couldn't get me up in one of those things for $10,000. Well, I don't know - maybe with the right medications. Even then, you'd have to strap me in and I'd have my eyes closed the whole time.

My wife says it would be like going up in a wicker basket.

[Bo-4]

You couldn't get me up in one of those things for $10,000. Well, I don't know - maybe with the right medications. Even then, you'd have to strap me in and I'd have my eyes closed the whole time.

Been up twice and planning on another in the fall.

But i should say no more - hOboe, Subnorm and Tahu would pray for my demise. :D

[Oboe]

Been up twice and planning on another in the fall.

But i should say no more - hOboe, Subnorm and Tahu would pray for my demise. :D

Not so, it would ruin a perfectly good load of hot air, but, I digress.

[Standing Wolf]

I flew in P-3s in the Navy for nine years, doing s**t that would turn a lot of folks' hair white - emergency descent drills over Big Sur, and flying at 350 knots a hundred feet off the ocean surface at night - but there's just something about there being nothing between me and a long, lonely drop that chills my blood.

[Peter1469]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CooErNFWcAAyyoR.jpg

[Standing Wolf]

Holy crap.

[waltky]

NTSB takes lead in investigation of balloon crash...
http://www.politicalforum.com/images/smilies/icon_omg.gif
NTSB takes lead in probe of deadly balloon crash
July 31, 2016 • Washington (AFP) - The US National Transportation Safety Board, taking the lead in investigating the fiery crash Saturday of a hot-air balloon in Texas that claimed 16 lives, is asking the public for any cellphone videos of the incident.


Identifying the victims of one of the worst hot air balloon crashes in history will be "a long process," the Caldwell County (Texas) sheriff's office said in a statement. "Our goal is not to solve it this week," said Robert Sumwalt, an NTSB official who briefed reporters at Reagan National Airport in Washington. "Our goal while being on scene is to collect the perishable evidence" and ultimately determine "why it happened so that we can keep it from happening again." Authorities have not yet identified the company that operated the balloon or named any of the victims. But CNN and local media identified the balloon's pilot as Alfred "Skip" Nichols, owner of Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides. They said Nichols owned at least three balloons, one well-known in the area for sporting a huge yellow smiley face against a red, white and blue background. A photo on Facebook showed him piloting a balloon with a large wicker basket holding more than a dozen passengers.


https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/l4_Zgx8EERiuJxwQwJf91w--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjtzbT0xO3c9MTAyNDtoPTY0MjtpbD 1wbGFuZQ--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/8294711e0eaa5cb5c97c34c08bc4fa0c8fb5f518.jpg
Authorities investigate the site of a hot air balloon accident in Maxwell, Texas

CNN quoted Alan Lirette, who worked for the company and said he had helped load the passengers on Saturday, as confirming Nichols' death and saying there were no children aboard. He said Nichols was a close friend and a "great pilot." The Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are assisting in the inquiry. The NTSB on Saturday sent a team of technical experts from Washington to the scene, where they will first examine the site on foot to look at "three things: the human, the machine and the environment," Sumwalt said. "What that really means is we're looking at the operation of the balloon, the pilot, the company that operated the balloon," he said. The balloon burst into flames and plummeted to earth soon after dawn outside the town of Lockhart, some 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Austin, the FAA said in a statement. Sumwalt confirmed that 16 people onboard had died.


https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/3YNJoCjC.QaGNJWEHYLUWw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjtzbT0xO3c9MTAyNDtoPTkwNjtpbD 1wbGFuZQ--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/dd6c8696c3d3b052e6e308bb7f2a9c344bc29515.jpg
World's worst balloon accidents

Weather did not appear to be a problem -- temperatures were moderate and wind was light. Local residents speculated the balloon, seen floating at a low altitude, had struck a power line that runs prominently across the field. "I didn't see the balloon hit. I just heard the popping. And I heard the popping, and then the next thing I knew is the fireball went up," Margaret Wylie, 66, who witnessed the crash, told broadcaster TWC News Austin. Collisions with power lines are a leading cause of hot air balloon crashes.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/federal-team-opens-inquiry-texas-balloon-crash-killed-173226899.html?ref=gs

[Mac-7]

You know chances are all 16 were hillary or stein voters

[Safety]

You know chances are all 16 were hillary or stein voters

Chances are good that even in their condition today, they are smarter than Trump supporters.

[Mac-7]

Chances are good that even in their condition today, they are smarter than Trump supporters.

Could be.

and as liberals being dead will not stop any of them from still voting for hillary in november

[Safety]

Could be.

and as liberals being dead will not stop any of them from still voting for hillary in november

Yet, most documented cases of voter fraud were committed by conservatives...

[Truth Detector]

Yet, most documented cases of voter fraud were committed by conservatives...

Link us up. :biglaugh:

[hanger4]

I thought this was about the democrat convention.

But I used to race motocross in Lockhart. One nasty track.

Had a relative that was Pro. Oboe indoor outdoor circuit. Did pretty good too.

[exotix]

You know chances are all 16 were hillary or stein voters
Could be.

and as liberals being dead will not stop any of them from still voting for hillary in novemberWell sort of .... the Flight Operator was using a cell phone and iPad to navigate ... this is because Texas wanted Big Govt. FAA regulations forbidding this out of their hair.

[waltky]

Egyptian 2013 balloon crash was worst ever...
:shocked:
Texas balloon crash reminder of Egypt's 2013 disaster
Aug 1,`16 -- The weekend's hot balloon crash in Texas has been a grim reminder of a similar but deadlier accident in Egypt three years ago, when 19 foreign tourists burned to death or jumped to their deaths from the burning balloon as their sunrise flight over the famed temples of the ancient city of Luxor drew to a close.


There were no survivors among the 16 people aboard the balloon that crashed in central Texas Saturday, the worst such disaster in U.S. history. Authorities there say the balloon hit high-tension power lines before crashing into a pasture near Lockhart, about 60 miles northeast of San Antonio. "I am very saddened by the accident in Texas," said Moamen Murad Ali, the pilot of the Luxor balloon who suffered burns over 70 percent of his body as he tried to put out the fire that consumed the balloon in just a few minutes, killing 19 foreign tourists, who included French, British, Belgian and Japanese nationals. The death toll surpassed what was believed by ballooning experts to be the deadliest accident in the sport's 200-year history: In 1989, 13 people were killed when their hot air balloon collided with another over the Australian outback near the town of Alice Springs.

Recounting the final minutes of the 2013 flight in a telephone interview with The Associated Press Monday, Ali said the balloon was tantalizingly close to the ground when the fire first broke out. "I yelled 'jump' to the passengers, but only one, a British man, did." He and Ali were the only survivors. With the balloon lighter and the fire burning ferociously, the aircraft quickly gained altitude before a gas tank near where Ali stood exploded, hurling him out of the balloon and down to the ground. He suffered severe burns that, according to him, were caused by his tenacious attempts to put out the fire. He was hospitalized for nearly three months while under arrest on charges of negligence.

After months of questioning, he said, Ali was eventually put on trial but was acquitted. Now, more than three years after the accident, he says he still needs one or two more plastic surgeries which he cannot afford. "I have spent a great deal of money on medical treatment. The balloon company let me go and no one really came forward to help me with the expenses," he said. "When I decided that everyone should jump, I knew that they would have all survived. I could have jumped myself, but I was too preoccupied with putting out the fire, which was like a monster," he said. "I flew the same balloon the day before and I went through the check list before takeoff. The weather was fine and the wind was fair. Everything is laid out clearly for me and the ground crew. There is no room for error."

At the time of the accident, investigators said the balloon was in the process of landing when a cable got caught around a helium tube and a fire erupted, sending the balloon on an ascent and detonating a gas canister. The balloon plunged about 300 meters (1,000 feet) to the ground, crashing in a sugar cane field, they said. Balloon flights, a common recreational tourist activity in Luxor, were suspended for several months after the accident. An aviation official, also at the time of the accident, blamed Ali, saying initial results of the investigation showed he jumped out when the fire began, instead of shutting off valves that would have prevented the gas canister from exploding. "It was not human error. I did not accidentally hit a building or a power cable. This is just destiny," said the 32-year-old Ali, who said he had clocked 2,000 flying hours prior to the Feb. 26, 2013 accident. "It was like getting a flat tire while driving. God wills it to happen and it just happens."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_EGYPT_LUXOR_BALLOON?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-08-01-14-32-02

[exotix]

Today

Balloon pilot was never grounded due to gap in oversight

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/balloon-pilot-was-never-grounded-due-to-gap-in-oversight/ar-BBv8lGh?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

LOCKHART, Texas — If Alfred "Skip" Nichols had been a commercial airplane pilot, he probably would have been grounded long ago.

Nichols, the pilot of a hot air balloon that crashed over the weekend in Texas, killing 16, was able to keep flying despite having at least four convictions for drunken driving and twice spending time in prison — pointing to gaps in oversight of hot air balloon pilots.

Whether the pilot's drinking habits had anything to do with the crash was unclear.
A former girlfriend described Nichols as a recovering alcoholic.
She said he had been sober for at least four years and never piloted a balloon after drinking.

The Federal Aviation Administration might allow a recovering alcoholic to fly commercial jets if the pilot could show that he or she was being successfully treated, said John Gadzinski, an airline captain and aviation safety consultant.

But the agency is unlikely to accept an airline pilot with convictions for driving under the influence, he said.

The 49-year-old Nichols also had a long history of customer complaints against his balloon-ride companies in Missouri and Illinois dating back to 1997.

Customers reported to the Better Business Bureau that their rides would get canceled at the last minute and their fees never refunded.

When pilots apply for a ballooning certificate with the FAA, they are not required to disclose any prior drunken driving convictions, only drug convictions, said Patrick Cannon, a spokesman for the Balloon Federation of America trade group, who called that a loophole in the law.

He noted that the ballooning certificate specifically says not to include alcohol offenses involving a motor vehicle, as those are covered on the FAA's medical application.



Skip Nichols: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

http://heavy.com/news/2016/07/skip-nichols-hot-air-balloon-pilot-heart-of-texas-rides-victim-named-identified-video-watch-lockhart-texas-crash-family-photos/



https://heavyeditorial.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/balloon8.jpg?quality=65&strip=all&w=780&strip=all