2012 Ljubljana Marshes hot air balloon crash
| Accident summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | 23 August 2012, 7:54 am CEST (05:54 UTC)[1] |
| Summary | Under investigation |
| Site | Ljubljana Marshes in the Municipality of Ig, between Lavrica, Črna Vas and Ig, 7 km south of Ljubljana, Slovenia Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
| Passengers | 30 |
| Crew | 2 |
| Injuries (non-fatal) | 28[2][3] |
| Fatalities | 6[4] |
| Survivors | 26 |
| Aircraft type | Hot air balloon |
| Registration | S5-OLM |
The 2012 Ljubljana hot air balloon crash occurred on the Ljubljana Marshes in central Slovenia on 23 August 2012, killing six people.
Accident
A hot air balloon carrying 32 passengers, mostly tourists, crashed and caught fire during a thunderstorm on the Ljubljana Marshes, in the Municipality of Ig, between Lavrica, Črna Vas and Ig, next to Ig Street (Ižanska cesta), two hundred meters from the turn for Matena, seven kilometres south of Ljubljana.[3] A sudden weather change caused the pilot to try to land immediately. However, the emergency landing was thwarted by wind shear[5] and the balloon hit nearby trees. Fire followed.[6]
Casualties
Four people on board were killed during the accident and twenty eight others were injured. The four dead at the scene were charred beyond recognition. All four were from Ljubljana: a couple, their 11-year-old daughter and a 56-year-old woman.[6] Ten people had to be resuscitated. All of the survivors, aged from about 10 to about 60 years, received medical care: 21 of them at the Ljubljana University Medical Centre, five in the Novo Mesto Hospital, one in the Jesenice Hospital and one in the Celje Hospital. Two critically injured men- the pilot and another man from Ljubljana- were later transported to the Maribor University Clinical Centre.[5] Two of the injured people were British and another two were Italian citizens.[7] A fifth victim died of her injuries two weeks later in Ljubljana[8] and the sixth victim, a 59-year-old man from Ljubljana, a few days later in Maribor.[4]
Specifics of the balloon
The basket of the balloon was 5.20 meters (17.1 feet) long and 1.70 metres (5 feet 7 inches) wide.[9] It had four compartments.[9] Its inertia was 19 tonnes (19 long tons; 21 short tons). The balloon was manufactured by the Lindstrand Balloons company. It was the largest balloon in the country and the largest serially manufactured balloon in the world.[10]
Aftermath
On the same day at 7:00 pm, a mass was held in St. Michael's Church on the Marshes in Črna Vas by Anton Jamnik, the auxiliary Bishop of Ljubljana, for the dead and injured. It was attended by about 400 people.
Slovene Civil Aviation Agency reported on 27 August 2012 that commercial hot air balloon flights were banned temporarily. The duration of the ban was not given, but the reason for the ban was cited as the balloon crash.[6] Throughout the next year, all involved parties coordinated proposals for stricter rules which were accepted and first new licenses granted in August 2013. In the mean time, several operators closed because they were prevented from selling flights, while the remaining ones faced severely reduced sales even after the ban was lifted.[11]
In their report, official accident investigators accused the pilot of using an improper landing procedure, as well as ignoring the bad weather warning and the flight rules. In a preliminary hearing, the pilot denied all these statements, pleading not guilty to the charge of causing general danger. The court trial is now pending.[12]
References
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