A hot-air balloon crashed Sunday morning in Arizona shortly after eight skydivers had jumped from its gondola, killing four of the remaining occupants and leaving a fifth critically injured.
According to police, the “devastating incident” happened around 7:50 a.m. in a rural desert area about five miles north of Eloy, a popular skydiving location 65 miles south of Phoenix.
The balloon came down vertically before hitting the ground hard, witnesses told police.
According to Eloy Mayor Micah Powell, the balloon took off carrying 13 adults—the pilot, four passengers, and eight skydivers.
“We received multiple 911 calls of a balloon crash,” Eloy Police Chief Byron Gwaltney said.
“The skydivers were able to exit the balloon without incident and completed their planned skydiving event, and then shortly thereafter something catastrophic occurred with the balloon, causing it to crash to the ground,” he said.
It remains unclear what exactly happened to the balloon.
“It’s just an absolute tragedy for our community,” Mr. Gwaltney said.
Eloy is a very popular skydiving location—according to Mr. Powell, it’s the world’s largest skydiving dropzone, and the host to many national and international skydiving championships.
“It affects us, because the skydiving community is a large one and very, very close knit,” he said.
The Eloy Police Department said the names of the victims had not been released as the authorities had yet to notify all of the victims’ families.
However, one of the victims has been identified as 28-year-old Katie Bartrom, a registered nurse from Indiana who loved skydiving and adventure.
“It’s kind of somber here at home,” her mother, Jennifer Hubartt, told ABC15. “We’re crying about her on and off and talking about her on and off, still trying to make it real. She was a beautiful person, she recently became an RN and was making it on her own.”
A number of sources in the skydiving community have identified the pilot as Cornelius van der Walt. Skydivers Tanya Toliver and David Boone shared their comments with the news station.
“It hit me as a shock. Just because, you know, Cornelius is always super careful. He’s very, very aware of what he’s doing. He’s been doing it for a long, long time and he only got better with time,” Mr. Boone said. “He was just an excellent balloon pilot. It’s not like he wasn’t experienced to dropping skydivers.”
“We’ve been on that balloon so many times,” Ms. Toliver said. “It’s horribly tragic, especially because there were passengers on board.”
“His balloon fit sixteen to twenty people,” she added. “His was sixteen, I believe,” Mr. Boone said.
Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) arrived at the scene Sunday afternoon, and are handling the investigation in collaboration with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The NTSB has identified the balloon as an A-160 passenger balloon made by U.K. manufacturer Cameron Balloons. The model is listed on the manufacturer’s website as capable of holding 6 to 7 passengers, depending on body weight, in addition to the pilot.