05 Aug Fatal balloon crash
At least 16 people aboard a hot air balloon died when it caught fire and crashed in a corn field in central Texas, in the deadliest such accident in the USA in decades.
Caldwell County sheriff’s deputies responding to a 911 call about an apparent vehicle accident instead found the burned basket portion of a hot air balloon, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
The balloon crashed into farmland under a stretch of high-power electrical transmission lines in a field outside the town of Maxwell, about 30 miles south of Austin. Authorities did not immediately say what caused the crash.