A hot air balloon pilot who burned and crashed in Mexico City, killing a husband and wife and hospitalizing their 13-year-old daughter, has been arrested for fleeing the scene.
Victor Guzmán was taken into custody after the balloon he was piloting plunged over Teotihuacan on Saturday, killing Jose Nolasco, 50, and his wife, Viridiana Veceril, 39.
Her daughter, Regina Itzani, jumped over 130 feet from a balloon, breaking her arm and sustaining second-degree burns.
Guzman stood 16 feet away from the balloon and told Mexican officials that he abandoned the balloon because he didn’t know how to react when it caught fire. Daily Mail report.
The pilot also suffered burns in the accident.
He was then discharged.
A gruesome video of the incident shows the basket of balloons engulfed in flames as bystanders screamed in panic as the tethered balloon began to rise into the sky.
The balloon then withers and the gondola is flung to the ground as the occupants fall out of the sky.
Throughout the incident, a male voice, presumably Nolasco, was heard yelling “help” in Spanish.
According to emails, the family had tragically taken a picture together just before the ride. This was set up as Viridiana’s birthday present on behalf of her husband and her daughter.
A joyride was set up for the family to see the pre-Hispanic ruins of Teotihuacan, a popular tourist destination overlooking the Aztec pyramids.
Regina’s grandmother, Reina Gloria Sarmiento, said in an email that she was recovering in the hospital and told the family that she hugged her parents before jumping out of the balloon.
The Federal Aviation Administration is leading an investigation into the incident, looking into whether Autocinema Retroviso, the hot air balloon company involved, had a license to operate and adequate insurance to cover the accident.
There are about 3,000 hot air balloon accidents each year, but fatalities are extremely rare.
The National Transportation Safety Board estimates that only 16 people died in hot air balloon accidents in the United States between 2002 and 2016.
