Police believe no survivors in hot air balloon crash in Texas

[spaminator]

Police believe no survivors in hot air balloon crash in Texas
Jim Vertuno, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First posted: Saturday, July 30, 2016 12:47 PM EDT | Updated: Sunday, July 31, 2016 01:28 AM EDT
LOCKHART, Texas -- A hot air balloon carrying at least 16 people caught on fire and crashed in Central Texas on Saturday, and there did not appear to be any survivors, authorities said.
Authorities would not confirm the exact number of deaths, but Lynn Lunsford with the Federal Aviation Administration said the balloon was carrying at least 16 people and the Caldwell County Sheriff's Office said in a statement that it didn't look like anyone survived.
If 16 people were killed, it would be the one of the worst such disasters, possibly the worst in U.S. history. The deadliest such disaster happened in February 2013, when a balloon flying over Luxor, Egypt, caught fire and plunged 1,000 feet to the ground, crashing into a sugar cane field and killing at least 19 foreign tourists
Saturday's crash happened at about 7:40 a.m. in a pasture near Lockhart, which is about 30 miles south of Austin. The land near the crash site is mostly farmland, with corn crops and grazing cattle. Cutting through that farmland is a row of massive high-capacity electrical transmission lines about 4 to 5 stories tall. The site of the crash appears to be right below the overhead lines, though authorities haven't provided further details about what happened. Aerial photos showed an area of charred pasture underneath power lines.
Margaret Wylie lives about a quarter-mile from the crash site and told The Associated Press that she was letting her dog out Saturday morning when she heard a "pop, pop, pop."
"I looked around and it was like a fireball going up," she said, noting that the fireball was under large power lines and almost high enough to reach the bottom of them.
Wylie, who called 911, said the weather seemed clear and that she frequently sees hot air balloons in the area.
Erik Grosof with the National Transportation Safety Board said at a news conference that the agency has deemed it a major accident and a full-bore investigation will begin Sunday when more federal officials arrive. "This will be a difficult site for us to work through," Grosof said.
The balloon was operated by Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides, according to two officials familiar with the investigation. The officials spoke on condition that they not be named because they weren't authorized to speak publicly.
Heart of Texas' website said it offers rides in the San Antonio, Houston and Austin areas. The company's Facebook page features photos of a hot air balloon with a smiley face with sunglasses on it up in the air, people waving from a large basket on the ground and group selfies taken while up in the air.
The operation does not appear to be registered with the state of Texas.
Authorities have not released the names of those who were on board and have not said who was flying the balloon.
Skip Nichols identifies himself on his Facebook page as the chief pilot of Heart of Texas and pictures posted by him are on the business' Facebook page. Nichols, 49, is also the registered owner of Missouri-based Air Balloon Sports LLC. No one answered the door at a home in Kyle, Texas, believed to be his. Calls to Heart of Texas operations manager Sarah Nichols, 72, rang unanswered, and a woman in Missouri believed to be his sister did not return calls seeking comment.
Warning about potential high-fatality accidents, safety investigators recommended two years ago that the Federal Aviation Administration impose greater oversight on commercial hot air balloon operators, government documents show. The FAA rejected those recommendations.
In a letter to FAA Administrator Michael Huerta in April 2014, the National Transportation Safety Board urged the FAA to require tour companies to get agency permission to operate, and to make balloon operators subject to FAA safety inspections. The FAA's Huerta responded that regulations were unnecessary because the risks were too low.
After Huerta's reply, the NTSB classified the FAA's response to the two balloon safety recommendations as "open-unacceptable," which means the safety board was not satisfied with the FAA's response.
Speaking to the AP just before leaving for Texas to lead the crash investigation, NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt said he was studying the board's recommendations from previous hot air balloon accidents. "I think the fact that it is open-unacceptable pretty much speaks for itself," he said.
He also noted that the team was still trying to gather basic information about the accident.
FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford said it's difficult to say whether the Texas crash will cause the agency to reconsider NTSB's recommendations "until we've had a chance to gather and examine the evidence in this particular case."
------
Associated Press writers Jamie Stengle in Dallas, Emily Schmall in Fort Worth and Joan Lowy in Washington contributed to this report.
Police believe no survivors in hot air balloon crash in Texas | World | News | T

 

[Liberalman]

I am going to wait til this one starts to fly

 

[Blackleaf]

The largest aircraft in the world is Britain's Airlander 10, which made its debut flight earlier this year.

The Airlander 10 in a giant hangar in RAF Cardington in Bedfordshire

 

[spaminator]

Authorities confirm 16 dead in Texas balloon crash
Will Weissert, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First posted: Saturday, July 30, 2016 12:47 PM EDT | Updated: Sunday, July 31, 2016 10:24 PM EDT
LOCKHART, Texas -- A hot air balloon hit high-tension power lines before crashing into a pasture in Central Texas, killing all 16 on board, according to federal authorities investigating the worst such disaster in U.S. history.
A power line was tripped at 7:42 a.m. Saturday, and the first call to 911 came a minute later, National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt said during a news conference. The crash site was near a row of high-tension power lines, and aerial photos showed an area of scorched land underneath.
"There is physical evidence to indicate that the balloon, or some component of the balloon, hit the physical wires themselves and not the tower," Sumwalt said.
The NTSB will look at several factors including reports of foggy weather, but is concentrating first on gathering evidence such as witness statements.
The pilot was Skip Nichols, 49, according to Alan Lirette, who identified Nichols as his best friend, roommate and boss. Lirette said he helped launch the balloon. The NTSB has not yet publicly identified the pilot or the passengers.
Matt Rowan and his wife, Sunday Rowan, were among those on board, his brother Josh Rowan said. The recently married couple from San Antonio, both 34, had texted family and posted on social media pictures of the balloon set up, the rising sun and them in the basket.
"It's a bit haunting now," Josh Rowan told The Associated Press on Sunday.
The NTSB said the balloon was run by Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides. Nichols' Facebook page identifies him as the chief pilot.
The passengers met the balloon operator in the San Marcos Wal-Mart parking lot at about 5:45 a.m. Saturday, and travelled to Fentress Texas Airpark. Ground crew members told the NTSB that they launched about 20 minutes after the expected 6:45 a.m. time.
The balloon travelled about 8 miles from takeoff to crash, and the basket was found about three-quarters of a mile from the balloon material itself.
Identification of the victims will be "a long process," Caldwell County Sheriff Daniel Law quoted the NTSB and medical professionals as saying.
An online Federal Aviation Administration database said an Alfred G. Nichols of Chesterfield, Missouri, was medically certified to fly in 1996 and was rated a commercial pilot of lighter-than-air balloons on July 14, 2010. The rating is limited to hot air balloons with an airborne heater. Missouri records also listed Nichols as the owner of Air Balloon Sports LLC, based from the same Chesterfield address as the FAA record.
A Missouri police officer said Nichols was arrested in 2000 on a felony driving while intoxicated charge and pleaded guilty to misdemeanour DWI in 2002.
The officer said that based on photographs he is confident the man arrested then is the same man who piloted the Texas balloon. Nichols was known as "Skip" in both places and owned a hot air balloon touring company in St. Louis County at the time, said the officer, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition that he not be identified because he was not authorized to comment publicly.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported in 2008 that the Better Business Bureau had warned consumers about doing business with Nichols, the third time since 2000 that Nichols had gotten an unsatisfactory record for not responding to complaints. The paper quoted the BBB as saying Nichols was on probation in Missouri for distribution, delivery or manufacturing a controlled substance and that when asked to respond, Nichols said, "I prefer to make no comment on that."
Lirette declined to answer specific questions about the balloon's launch or its crash.
"That's the only thing I want to talk about, is that he's a great pilot," Lirette said, speaking to the AP from a house he shared with Nichols in Kyle. "There's going to be all kinds of reports out in the press and I want a positive image there too."
Wendy Bartch, a former girlfriend of Nichols, told the Austin American-Statesman that he was "a good pilot and loved people," was cautious about keeping passengers safe, and had been involved with hot air balloons for about two decades.
Philip Bryant of Ballooning Adventures of Texas in Richmond, which also does inspections and maintenance for other operators, said the balloon had "very good equipment, very new equipment." Nichols brought his balloon into his inspection facility in May 2014 and was issued a one-year recertification, Bryant said. The manufacturer of Nichols' balloon mandates an annual inspection, he said, adding that he couldn't do it this year but believes Nichols took it to another inspector.
Bryant said Nichols told him he moved from the St. Louis area to Texas because there was less competition.
Crews recovered 14 personal electronic devices, including cellphones, and iPad and three cameras from the crash site, which will be sent to the NTSB's lab in Washington for investigation.
Margaret Wylie, who lives about a quarter-mile from the site, told AP she was letting her dog out when she heard a "pop, pop, pop" and saw what looked "like a fireball going up."
Saturday's crash was one of the worst hot air balloon accidents on record. In 2013, 19 people were killed and two were injured when a balloon caught fire over Luxor, Egypt, and plunged 1,000 feet.
------
Associated Press writers Jim Vertuno, Jamie Stengle in Dallas, Emily Schmall in Fort Worth, Texas, Maria Fisher in Kansas City and Chad Day and Joan Lowy in Washington contributed to this report.
Authorities confirm 16 dead in Texas balloon crash | World | News | Toronto Sun

Texas balloon pilot had been arrested for DWI in 2000
Will Weissert, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First posted: Monday, August 01, 2016 01:46 AM EDT | Updated: Monday, August 01, 2016 01:54 AM EDT
LOCKHART, Texas -- The pilot of a hot air balloon that crashed in Texas and killed all 16 people aboard had been arrested in Missouri for driving while intoxicated in 2000, police said, and the Better Business Bureau there had warned consumers about doing business with him after complaints about his balloon touring company.
Alfred "Skip" Nichols, 49, was identified as the pilot by his friend and roommate Alan Lirette, who said that Nichols was a good pilot.
"That's the only thing I want to talk about, is that he's a great pilot," Lirette said, speaking to the AP from a house he shared with Nichols in Kyle, Texas. "There's going to be all kinds of reports out in the press and I want a positive image there too."
Federal investigators said the balloon, which was operated by Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides, hit high-tension power lines before crashing into a pasture in Central Texas early Saturday morning. One witness who lives a quarter-mile from the site, Margaret Wylie, said she heard popping sounds and saw what looked "like a fireball going up."
Authorities have not publicly named Nichols or the victims of the crash. They said identification of the bodies could be a long process.
There were reports of foggy weather in the area around the time of the flight. At least two of the passengers, Matt Rowan and his wife Sunday Rowan, posted photos on social media of the preparations, the early morning sunrise and themselves in the basket of the balloon a short time before the crash.
Ground crew members told investigators that they launched about 20 minutes after the expected 6:45 a.m. time. The balloon travelled about 8 miles from takeoff to crash, and the basket was found about three-quarters of a mile from the balloon itself.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators recovered 14 personal electronic devices, including cellphones, an iPad and three cameras from the crash site, which will be sent to a lab in Washington for analysis.
NTSB member Robert Sumwalt said the immediate focus of the investigation would be gathering witness testimony, starting with the ground crew on Monday.
"They've been busy trying to collect the maintenance records for us," Sumwalt said of the ground crew, adding that the records may be in Houston.
Sumwalt said the pilot had a commercial certificate to fly a hot air balloon and those records are being gathered from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Asked if the pilot had any criminal history, Sumwalt said it was too early in the investigation to know.
But a Missouri police officer told The Associated Press that Nichols was arrested there in 2000 on a felony driving while intoxicated charge and pleaded guilty to misdemeanour DWI in 2002.
The officer said that based on photographs he is confident the man arrested in Missouri is the same man who piloted the Texas balloon. Nichols had lived in Missouri before moving to Texas. He was known as "Skip" in both places and owned a hot air balloon touring company in St. Louis County at the time, said the officer, who spoke to the AP on condition that he not be identified because he was not authorized to comment publicly.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported in 2008 that the Better Business Bureau had warned consumers about doing business with Nichols, the third time since 2000 that Nichols had gotten an unsatisfactory record for not responding to complaints. The paper quoted the BBB as saying Nichols was on probation in Missouri for distribution, delivery or manufacturing a controlled substance and that when asked to respond, Nichols said, "I prefer to make no comment on that."
Investigators work at the scene of Saturday's hot air balloon crash near Maxwell, Texas, Sunday, July 31, 2016. A hot air balloon made contact with high-tension power lines before crashing into a pasture in Central Texas, killing all on board, according to federal authorities who are investigating the worst such disaster in U.S. history. (Edward A. Ornelas/The San Antonio Express-News via AP)

Texas balloon pilot had been arrested for DWI in 2000 | World | News | Toronto S

 

[spaminator]

Balloon pilot was convicted of drunk driving 4 times
Will Weissert and Emily Schmall, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First posted: Monday, August 01, 2016 01:46 AM EDT | Updated: Monday, August 01, 2016 01:54 AM EDT
LOCKHART, Texas -- The pilot of a hot air balloon that crashed in Texas, killing 16 people, was able to keep flying despite having at least four convictions for drunken driving in Missouri and twice spending time in prison.
Whether the pilot's drinking habits had anything to do with the crash was unclear. A former girlfriend described Alfred "Skip" Nichols as a recovering alcoholic. She said he had been sober for at least four years and never piloted a balloon after drinking.
Nichols, who had been stripped of his driver's license at least twice, "couldn't drive a car but he could pilot a hot air balloon," said an attorney who represented a passenger who sued Nichols in 2013. The passenger said she was hurt when Nichols crash-landed a balloon in the St. Louis suburbs.
Had he been a commercial airplane pilot, Nichols probably would have been grounded long ago.
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 cancelled 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 offences involving a motor vehicle, as those are covered on the FAA's medical application.
However, unlike other pilots, balloon pilots do not have to get regular medical exams from FAA-certified examiners. They are only required to write a statement certifying that they have "no medical defect" that would limit their ability to pilot a balloon.
Commercial plane pilots are required to fill out a form that includes questions on alcohol dependence or abuse and convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol.
A member of the National Transportation Safety Board, Robert Sumwalt, criticized what he called a "disparity" in the FAA requirements for balloon operators compared to plane or helicopter pilots.
Nichols got his commercial license to pilot hot air balloons in Missouri in July 1996. His first drunken-driving conviction came in St. Louis County in 1990, followed by two more convictions in 2002 and a fourth in 2010, according to online court records.
He was also convicted of a drug crime in 2000 and spent about a year and a half in prison before being paroled. He was returned to prison in April 2010 after his parole was revoked because of his drunken-driving conviction that year. He was paroled again in January 2012.
After they receive a license, all pilots are supposed to notify the FAA within 60 days of a drug or alcohol conviction. However, Cannon said, there is no oversight of that reporting requirement for balloon pilots.
FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford could not yet say whether Nichols had made any such reports. If he had, according to the FAA's website, he could have lost his license.
The former girlfriend, Wendy Bartch, said Nichols "did not fly when he wasn't supposed to. Having other people's lives at stake was Skip's primary concern."
Nichols was identified as the pilot by his company, which has suspended operations.
Authorities say the balloon, which was operated by Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides, hit high-tension power lines before crashing into a pasture Saturday near Lockhart, about 60 miles northeast of San Antonio.
While there were patches of fog on the day of the flight, the ground crew said it was clear when the balloon took off, and there was no sign of any maintenance trouble with the balloon, Sumwalt said.
Between late 1998 and 2001, the Better Business Bureau said it had received more than three dozen complaints against Nichols' Manchester Balloon Voyages, leading it to twice warn the public about the company.
Customers complained that cancelled rides cost them $70 to $700. In one case, a Catholic nun celebrating her 50th anniversary of service had lost $364 that she paid toward a ride for her and three friends.
Then in 2008, after logging eight more complaints, the bureau issued a third warning about Nichols, who was then operating under the name of Air Balloon Sports. One complaint came from a woman who had paid $1,600 to take her family on a ride as a Christmas gift. The woman said Nichols would repeatedly cancel rides "even when the weather appeared calm and sunny," according to the bureau.
In recent years, Bartch said, Nichols was "all about recovery. He became a different person."
She described Nichols as lighthearted, a follower of the Grateful Dead whose dogs, Zappa and Joplin, were named after two of his favourite musicians.
After she and Nichols broke up, she said, they remained friends, and she helped him move to Texas in 2014. In order to keep his St. Louis business going, he started offering flights in Texas in the winter when St. Louis was rainy and cold.
FAA records indicate that the Texas company was involved in an accident with same balloon two years ago. On Aug. 3, 2014, the balloon made a hard landing in Kyle, Texas, when the pilot touched down abruptly to avoid striking a ground-crew vehicle that had been parked in the balloon's path. Two passengers were hurt.
It was not clear if Nichols was the pilot on that day.
In 2013, Nichols and his company settled a personal-injury lawsuit filed by the passenger who said she got hurt after the crash landing near St. Louis. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Carroll Brcic said she and her husband and son used a Groupon coupon to purchase a balloon ride with Nichols on July 13, 2009. They took off from a school near House Springs, Missouri.
The family of three and five other passengers were in the air with Nichols when, the family contended, Nichols said he had run out of propane and the balloon began to fall.
Nichols contended that the balloon began to drop because of a lack of wind. Because it was drifting toward power lines, he said, he made what he called a controlled landing amid trees.
"He basically landed in the forest," Brcic's attorney, S. Lee Patton, said. "He called it a controlled landing. My client called it a crash."
Patton said the balloon dropped suddenly in the final 20 feet. Brcic injured her neck and back. Her husband and son were unharmed.
As part of the case, Patton said he learned from the Missouri Department of Revenue that Nichols' driver's license had been suspended for 10 years due to the 2002 drunken-driving conviction. In a 2013 deposition, Nichols said he received a second 10-year license suspension in Missouri in 2010.
------
Schmall reported from Fort Worth. Associated Press writers Reese Dunklin and Jamie Stengle in Dallas, Jim Salter in St. Louis and Joan Lowy in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
Balloon pilot was convicted of drunk driving 4 times | World | News | Toronto Su

 

[Danbones]

...and then there is that old joke about where would they bury the survivors?
Texas, or their home states?

 

[spaminator]

Pilot never grounded due to oversight gap
Will Weissert And Emily Schmall, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First posted: Tuesday, August 02, 2016 11:39 AM EDT | Updated: Tuesday, August 02, 2016 12:16 PM EDT
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 cancelled 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 offences involving a motor vehicle, as those are covered on the FAA's medical application.

But balloon pilots do not have to get regular medical exams from FAA-certified examiners. They are only required to write a statement certifying that they have "no medical defect" that would limit their ability to pilot a balloon.

Commercial plane pilots are required to fill out a form that includes questions on alcohol dependence or abuse and convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol.

A member of the National Transportation Safety Board, Robert Sumwalt, criticized what he called a "disparity" in the FAA requirements for balloon operators compared to plane or helicopter pilots.

"I was an airline pilot for 24 years, flew airplanes for 32 years, and I had to have a medical, an FAA medical every six months," he said.

Nichols got his commercial license to pilot hot air balloons in Missouri in July 1996. His first drunken driving conviction came in St. Louis County in 1990, followed by two more convictions in 2002 and a fourth in 2010, according to online court records.

He was also convicted of a drug crime in 2000 and spent about a year and a half in prison before being paroled. He was returned to prison in April 2010 after his parole was revoked because of his drunken driving conviction that year. He was paroled again in January 2012.

After they receive a license, all pilots are supposed to notify the FAA within 60 days of a drug or alcohol conviction. However, Cannon said, there is no oversight of that reporting requirement for balloon pilots.

Investigators said they do not yet know why the balloon operated by Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides, hit high-tension power lines before crashing into a pasture Saturday near Lockhart, about 60 miles northeast of San Antonio.

While there were patches of fog on the day of the flight, the ground crew said it was clear when the balloon took off, and there was no sign of any maintenance trouble with the balloon, Sumwalt said. An examination of the balloon after the crash found "no evidence of preexisting failures, malfunctions or problems," he said.
------
Schmall reported from Fort Worth. Associated Press writers Reese Dunklin and Jamie Stengle in Dallas, Jim Salter in St. Louis and Joan Lowy in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
This undated photo provided by Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides shows Alfred "Skip" Nichols, identified by friends and colleagues as the pilot of the hot air balloon that went down Saturday, July 30, 2016,. (Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides via AP)

Pilot never grounded due to oversight gap | World | News | Toronto Sun

Balloon crash victims came from all walks of life
Jamie Stengle And David Warren, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First posted: Tuesday, August 02, 2016 11:53 AM EDT | Updated: Tuesday, August 02, 2016 12:51 PM EDT
DALLAS -- Among the 16 people who were killed in a hot air balloon crash in Texas over the weekend were a couple celebrating their 17th wedding anniversary, a researcher whose work focused on treating burn victims and a woman who took her mother as a belated Mother's Day gift, grieving family members said.
Authorities haven't released the names of those who died when the balloon struck power lines and crashed Saturday morning near Lockhart, which is 30 miles south of Austin. But some family members have come forward to say their loved ones were aboard and to speak of the growing dread they felt in the hours after the crash as their frantic texts and voicemails went unanswered.
Josh Rowan said his brother and sister-in-law, Matt and Sunday Rowan, were among those killed. The couple, both 34, grew up in College Station and had been friends since high school, and had just gotten married in February, he said.
"All of us were sort of calling them and texting them and messaging them and just trying to get anything back and just sort of time went on and we didn't hear anything back," Rowan said, noting that authorities later told the family his brother and sister-in-law were aboard the balloon.
Matt Rowan was a researcher and scientist at Brooke Army Medical Center who served as chief of one of its research centres. His research centred on treating burn victims, and he had also taught college chemistry.
Sunday Rowan worked at a clothing store and had a 5-year-old son. Brent Jones, the boy's father, told Dallas television station KDFW that Matt Rowan was an amazing man and that Sunday Rowan was "obsessed with her son's happiness."
"They were really happy and they were in love and they were really starting a life together. They were amazing people and they were full of life and full of joy," Josh Rowan said.
Joe and Tresa Owens took the balloon ride as a belated anniversary present to themselves, his sister, Angie Nadolny of Mattoon, Illinois, said by phone Monday.
The couple had been married 17 years and lived in Brookshire, west of Houston.
Nadolny said her brother posted a photo on social media saying he and his wife were about to go on a balloon ride and giving the same launch location as the one used for the ride that crashed. She said she and other family members kept trying to call her brother, but they never heard back.
She also said she's grown frustrated that authorities haven't revealed the identities of the victims in the crash, which is being investigated.
"No one at all, as far as any authorities, can tell me what happened to my brother," she said.
Nadolny said her brother, who was 42, was a butcher at the H-E-B supermarket, and that he was a warm man who made friends easily.
"He was a hard worker and loved his family very much," she said.
Tresa Owens worked at a daycare centre in the Houston suburb of Katy. Cheryl Myers, the assistant director of Tiger Land Child Care, said Tresa Owens was a leader in their infant classrooms for more than 20 years.
"She knew what she was doing. She knew how to make things work. She was great with the parents," Myers said.
The daycare centre released a statement saying that Holly Smith Huckabee, the mother of one of its teachers, was also killed in the balloon crash. A man who answered the door Monday at Huckabee's home in Katy said the family didn't want to speak.
Paige Brabson organized the balloon ride as a belated Mother's Day gift to her mother Lorilee Brabson, according to Jason Pino, the brother of Lorilee Brabson.
Pino told KKTV in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that his sister was posting photos to social media for much of the ride and then the postings stopped. After news of the wreck broke, family members started calling the two to check on their safety.
"We were just praying they were out of service or something," Pino said.
The Brabsons were originally from Colorado Springs and moved to Texas about three years ago, he said. Paige Brabson had a daughter who's about a year old.
"They were good people. Paige was really happy all the time and exciting, and my sister was really bubbly," Pino said. "She was one of them girls that did everything for everybody ... They were two wonderful, great girls, and it was too soon."
Associated Press videographer John L. Mone in Katy contributed to this report.
This undated photo provided by Josh Rowan shows Matt Rowan and his wife Sunday Rowan. A hot air balloon hit high-tension power lines on Saturday, July 30, 2016, before crashing into a pasture in Central Texas, killing all 16 on board, including Matt and Sunday Rowan. The photo was not taken the day of the crash. (Josh Rowan via AP)

Balloon crash victims came from all walks of life | World | News | Toronto Sun

 

[tay]

The pilot of the deadliest hot air balloon crash in U.S. history had seven different drugs in his system at the time of the accident, according to documents released today by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Nichols had a history of medical and psychiatric conditions, according to NTSB records, including diabetes and depression, and was being treated with several different medicines for with chronic back pain, attention deficit disorder and fibromyalgia, among his other medical ailments.

Three of those medicines that were found in his system -- diazepam (i.e. Valium), oxycodone (i.e. Oxycontin) and methylphenidate (i.e. Ritalin) -- are drugs that legally prevent a pilot from obtaining a medical certificate. Other medicines that were found -- cyclobenzaprine (a muscle relaxant) and diphenhydramine (i.e. Benadryl) -- are medicines that pilots are told not to fly while taking, as those drugs could impair the pilot and prevent the pilot from flying safely, according to NTSB documents.

Nichols also suffered from "major depressive disorder," according to Nichols' medical records obtained by the NTSB. And while Nichols was taking medication to treat this condition, one expert suggested that may not have been enough.

"Someone taking anti-depressants does not necessarily guarantee the anti-depressants are effective," Federal Aviation Administration Chief Psychiatrist Charles Chesanow testified today in Washington, D.C.

Currently, the FAA does not require hot air balloon pilots to hold a medical certificate, even though both fixed-wing and helicopter pilots do need this certificate.

And though Nichols may not have legally needed a medical certificate to fly, depression is a disqualifying condition for pilot medical certification.

The FAA may issue a “special issuance of a medical certificate,” which would allow those pilots suffering from depression to fly, but only if the pilot proved that after six months of treatment, the pilot was clinically stable on one of four FAA-approved medications.
In Nichols' case, bupropion (an anti-depressant) was found in his body at the time of the accident, and is not one of the four FAA-approved medications.

But would Nichols’ passengers have noticed anything wrong with their pilot? One expert suggested not.

“The drug levels are an important piece of the puzzle, but they aren’t the entire puzzle,” Chesanow said.

Nichols also had multiple arrests, convictions and incarcerations, which included five alcohol-related incidents, possession of drugs, and driving with a suspended driving license, according to FBI National Crime Information Center records and Missouri driving records, obtained by the NTSB.

Nichols never reported any of his drug convictions or motor vehicle violations, according to testimony presented to the NTSB today, despite the fact that it was mandatory to report any of these incidents to the FAA within 60 days of them occurring.

Even after discovering that Nichols failed to report alcohol-related motor incidents, the FAA ultimately dismissed legal enforcement action against the pilot, according to a July 29, 2013, letter sent by the federal agency to Nichols.

video

7 Drugs Found in System of Hot Air Balloon Pilot in Deadliest US Crash, NTSB Says - ABC News

 

[Danbones]

wonder where his doctors were / are
if they were bartenders, they would be up on charges for serving the guy