LUXOR, Egypt (AP)
-- A hot air balloon flying over Egypt's ancient city of Luxor caught
fire and crashed into a sugar cane field on Tuesday, killing at least 18
foreign tourists, a security official said.
It was one of the worst accidents involving tourists in Egypt and likely to push the key tourism industry deeper into recession.
The
casualties included French, British, Belgian, Hungarian, Japanese
nationals and nine tourists from Hong Kong, Luxor Governor Ezzat Saad
told reporters.
Three survivors of the crash -
two British tourists and one Egyptian - were taken to a local hospital.
Egypt's civil aviation minister, Wael el-Maadawi, suspended hot air
balloon flights and flew to Luxor to lead the investigation into the
crash.
According to the Egyptian security
official, the balloon carrying at least 20 tourists was flying over
Luxor early Tuesday when it caught fire, which triggered an explosion in
its gas canister, then plunged at least 300 meters (1,000 feet) from
the sky.
The balloon crashed into a sugar cane
field outside al-Dhabaa village just west of Luxor, 510 kilometers (320
miles) south of Cairo, said the official, speaking on condition of
anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Bodies
of the dead tourists were scattered across the field around the
remnants of the balloon. An Associated Press reporter at the crash site
counted eight bodies as they were put into body bags and taken away. The
security official said all 18 bodies have been recovered.
The
security official said foul play has been ruled out. He also said
initial reports of 19 dead were revised to 18 as confusion is common in
the aftermath of such accidents.
An official
with the state prosecutor's office said initial findings show that the
accident occurred when the pilot's landing cable was caught around a
helium tube. He spoke anonymously because the investigation is ongoing.
The
head of Japan Travel Bureau's Egypt branch, Atsushi Imaeda, confirmed
that four Japanese died in the crash. He said two were a couple in their
60s from Tokyo. Details on the other two were not immediately
available.
In Hong Kong, a travel agency said
nine of the tourists that were aboard the balloon were natives of the
semiautonomous Chinese city. There was a "very big chance that all nine
have perished," said Raymond Ng, a spokesman for the agency. The nine,
he said, included five women and four men from three families.
They were traveling with six other Hong Kong residents on a 10-day tour of Egypt.
Ng
said an escort of the nine tourists watched the balloon from the ground
catching fire around 7 a.m. and plunging to the ground two minutes
later.
In Britain, tour operator Thomas Cook confirmed that two British tourists were dead and two were in hospital.
"What
happened in Luxor this morning is a terrible tragedy and the thoughts
of everyone in Thomas Cook are with our guests, their family and
friends," said Peter Fankhauser, CEO of Thomas Cook UK & Continental
Europe.
"We have a very experienced team in
resort with the two guests in the local hospital, and we're providing
our full support to the family and friends of the deceased at this
difficult time," he said.
In Paris, a
diplomatic official said French tourists were among those involved in
the accident, but would give no details on how many, or whether French
citizens were among those killed.
Speaking on
condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to be publicly named
according to government policy, the official said French authorities
were working with their Egyptian counterparts to clarify what happened.
French media reports said two French tourists were among the dead but
the official wouldn't confirm that.
Hot air
ballooning, usually at sunrise over the famed Karnak and Luxor temples
as well as the Valley of the Kings, is a popular pastime for tourists
visiting the area. Tickets for a hot air balloon ride per person are
around 200 Egyptian pounds, or roughly $30.
The
site of the accident has seen past crashes. In 2009, 16 tourists were
injured when their balloon struck a cellphone transmission tower. A year
earlier, seven tourists were injured in a similar crash.
Egypt's
tourism industry has been decimated since the 2011 uprising and the
political turmoil that followed and continues to this day. Luxor's
hotels are currently about 25 percent full in what is supposed to be the
peak of the winter season.
Scared off by the
turmoil and tenuous security following the uprising, the number of
tourists coming to Egypt fell to 9.8 million in 2011 from 14.7 million
the year before, and revenues plunged 30 percent to $8.8 billion.
Magda
Fawzi, whose company operates four luxury Nile River cruise boats to
Luxor, said she expects the accident will lead to tourist cancellations.
Tour guide Hadi Salama said he expects Tuesday's accident to hurt the
eight hot air balloon companies operating in Luxor, but that it may not
directly affect tourism to the Nile Valley city.
Poverty
swelled at the country's fastest rate in Luxor, which is highly
dependent on visitors to its monumental temples and the tombs of King
Tutankhamun and other pharaohs. In 2011, 39 percent of its population
lived on less than $1 a day, compared to 18 percent in 2009, according
to government figures.
In August, Egypt's
Islamist President Mohammed Morsi flew to Luxor to encourage tourism
there, about a month after he took office and vowed that Egypt was safe
for tourists.
"Egypt is safer than before, and
is open for all," he said in remarks carried by the official MENA news
agency at the time. He was referring to the security situation following
the 2011 ouster of autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak.
Deadly
accidents caused by poor management and a decrepit infrastructure have
taken place since Morsi took office. In January, 19 Egyptian conscripts
died when their rickety train jumped the track. In November, 49
kindergarteners were killed when their school bus crashed into a
speeding train because the railway guard failed to close the crossing.
The
Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most powerful political force and Morsi's
base of support, blames accidents on a culture of negligence fostered by
Mubarak.
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