Texas officials said 16 people died when the balloon caught fire in flight and crashed into a field at 7:40 a.m local time. The names of the pilots and passengers have not been released.
A blaze is believed to have broken out in the basket of the balloon before it came down in Lockhart, around 30 miles from Austin.
While victims’ names have not yet been released, the pilot has been identified as Skip Nichols of the company Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides.
The sheriff’s office received a 911 call reporting a possible vehicle accident near the intersection of Jolly and Cister Roads.
Police arrived on the scene to discover the hot air balloon, which authorities said crashed around 7.40am.
‘The Balloon was occupied and it does not appear at this time that there were any survivors of the crash,’ the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Investigators are now determining the identities of victims. It is not known how high the balloon was flying when it caught fire and plummeted to earth.
The passengers were 26 minutes into an hour-long ride when the balloon crashed, according to Marcus Officer from Fox 7 who spoke to the an employee of one of the men on board.
The hot air balloon crashed near a large plot of farmland with a row of high-capacity transmission lines about 4 to 5 stories tall.
The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board are rushing to the scene to investigate.
An FAA spokeswoman told Dailymail.com the agency does not release the names of pilots and passengers, adding: ‘Names will be released by local officials after relatives have been notified.’
Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement: ‘Investigators are determining the number and the identities of victims at this time.’
Spokesman Eric Weiss of the National Transportation Safety Board said an investigative team would arrive later on Saturday, and that they knew ‘very, very little right now’.
