British tourists have described their terror as the hot air balloon they were flying in ploughed into a mobile phone mast ripping through the fabric.
The Egyptian Government has grounded all balloon flights over Luxor until a safety investigation is complete
Instead of floating serenely above the ancient temples of Luxor, in Egypt, the balloon careered out of control and into the mast, before crashing some 30 feet to the ground.
The balloon hit power-lines as it plunged downwards, sending sparks in all directions. Once it hit the floor, the balloon was blown along the ground, spilling passengers out of the basket as it went. Sixteen tourists were injured, some of them seriously, as they were thrown, or they scrambled, from the wreckage
Caroline Williams, from Horsham in West Sussex, and who fractured her spine in the crash, said she had sensed something was wrong almost as soon as the balloon, which was carrying 26 people, took off at dawn.
“The pilot looked agitated and angry, and he was shouting at people. I strongly felt I wanted to get out of the basket,” she said, wincing and letting out a gasp, before describing what happened next.
“The balloon was sort of bumping around and the basket was tipping. I really felt it was dangerous situation. I saw the mast and next thing there was a ripping noise. I looked up and there was a tear in the balloon. We hit the ground with this mighty crash.”
Mrs Williams, who works helping children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), crawled out of the basket, but when she tried to stand she felt the pain in her back. “The thing was, nobody came,” she said. “The pilot sort of wandered around. All these men came and just packed up the balloon, and people were still lying all around.”
When help did arrive, the tourists were taken to a local hospital in Luxor. They were later transferred to Nassir Institute Hospital in Cairo.
Linda Lea, 63, an alternative therapy teacher from Staffordshire, was the most seriously injured of the tourists. Mrs Lea, who was one of those caught up in the wreckage, fractured her spine and broke a collarbone, three ribs and both the main bones in her shin, which ripped through her skin.
She then lay in a cornfield for about an hour waiting for help, yet this was only the beginning of an ordeal that, it is claimed, was to put her life at risk.
According to relatives and friends, local medical staff failed to diagnose her spine and rib injuries for several days in hospital and also left the open leg wound to fester. Her daughter, Debbie, said cleaning staff had even “wrestled” with her mother, causing her severe pain, as they attempted to move her in a sheet for a scan.
Ultimately, the poor quality of treatment resulted in the decision to fly her under general anaesthetic to an intensive care unit in Britain on Friday.
Speaking from Luxor, Miss Lea, 28, a postgraduate history student in Liverpool, said: “You see the advert with two people in a balloon floating through the skies in Egypt. She [her mother] always wanted to come here and she was looking forward to it. It was one of those things she’s always wanted to do.
“They were doing the balloon trip to see the sun rise over Luxor, but there was a gust of wind as it took off and basically it collided with a mobile phone mast. My mum actually said that the one sight she’ll never forget is of this spike coming through the balloon.
“The balloon plummeted to the ground and it was then dragged along. People fell out and, in my mum’s case, she was dragged along the ground.”
Mrs Lea, who suffered an asthma attack after the accident, was among those taken to Luxor’s airport after the accident to make the trip home, but was turned back by doctors who decided she was not fit to travel. She was taken back to hospital in Egypt, where her daughter said she had been “in a great deal of pain all week”.
“The most significant injury is a compound fracture of her tibia and fibia, but that wound was not treated correctly. It was left exposed for six days. So by the time they came to operate on it, the wound wasn’t in a fit state to do the operation they should have done, which was to plate it,” Miss Lea said.
“When the surgeons got here the wound wasn’t completely cleaned, so instead of putting the rods in they had to clean the wound and set in a plaster cast. The injuries my mother has are dreadful, they really are. I’m amazed she got away... not lightly, but as she did. I was absolutely horrified when I saw the care she’d been receiving.”
Police questioned the pilot after the accident on 25 April and, three days later, the Egyptian Government grounded all balloon flights over Luxor until the investigation was completed and a committee assessed the safety of the 73 balloons that fly over the ancient city.
Magic Horizons, the company that owned the balloon, was unavailable for comment last week, but the pilot was defended by other balloonists. “He did his best,” said Mohammed Mahmoud, a pilot who said he was about 30 yards away when the accident happened. “There was a strong wind all of a sudden, like a storm and the balloon barely hit the tower [mobile mast].”
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