Hot Air Balloon Carrying Three Burns, Explodes and Crashes in Virginia

Hot Air Balloon caught fire by power line and exploded

A  hot air balloon hit a power line as it was attempting to land, caught fire and then shot up into the sky before exploding and crashing Friday evening in eastern #Virginia, officials said.

The Virginia State Police were still looking for the wreckage and the three people who were in the balloon’s gondola when the accident occurred on Saturday morning.

Local resident Carrie Hager-Bradley told NBC12 she was on her way home after a trip to the grocery store when she saw the balloon in flames.

Hager-Bradley said she could hear cries from those on board.

"They were just screaming for anybody to help them. 'Help me, help me, sweet Jesus, help, I'm going to die, oh my God, I'm going to die,'" she told the station.

Her daughter saw what appeared to be an occupant of the #balloon fall to the ground, Hager-Bradley added. Earlier, Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said witnesses reported that three hot air balloons took off shortly before 8 p.m., and were attempting to land a short time later at a designated landing area.

Two successfully touched down, but the third hit the power line as it neared the ground, igniting a fire. The pilot tried to open the top of the balloon in an effort to get the fire under control, but the balloon rose quickly, Geller said. Witnesses then heard two explosions and, at one point, the gondola and balloon separated, she said.

The status of the pilot and two passengers on board was not known, she said.

"We will continue through the night,"
Geller said.
"We’ve got additional resources coming in until we find the wreckage."

The balloons lifted off from the Meadow Event Park in Caroline County, Va., which is north of Richmond, on the eve of Mid-Atlantic Balloon Festival. It is believed the balloon crashed northeast of the park.

"No wreckage has been found yet and there are no confirmed injuries or fatalities," the organizers of the event said in a statement.The remainder of the festival has been cancelled.

Cole Holocker, 18, told +NBC News  News he was headed to North Carolina with his family on Route 301 near Army base Fort A.P. Hill when he noticed smoke billowing in the distance.

“We saw black smoke coming from an object," he said. "Couldn't tell what it was. We thought it might be exhaust from a helicopter around the base and then, when we came close to it, we could see it was a balloon.”

Holocker, a college student, said he and his family pulled the car over to get a better look, and as the smoke began to dissipate, they could see the structure of the balloon "actually collapsing."

"There was nothing below the balloon. It looked like the basket had burned away,” he said. "(The balloon) was shrinking. As it started to lose air out of it, it collapsed to one side … and then it started falling at a faster rate, and then it fell behind the tree line.”

Holocker estimated he was about 5 to 10 miles away from the crash site.

Hot air balloon teams from all over the #UnitedStates were expected to participate in the festival Click Here!.

- F. Brinley Bruton contributed to this report.
Source: NBC News