A man in his 20s tragically died in a hot air balloon crash after the craft burst into a flames in front of horrified festival goers.
Pictures show the balloon hundreds of feet in the air before it suddenly plummeted from sky and crashed into trees near Ombersley Court, Worcestershire at around 6.20am today. Police, fire services and ambulance crews raced to the scene, but despite their best efforts, the male pilot was sadly pronounced dead.
The incident was witness by crowds of people who had turned out for the first ever Worcester Balloon Festival at the city's racecourse, the Mirror reports. The festival was supposed to go ahead last month, but was cancelled due to bad weather and was rescheduled to take place from Friday to Saturday evening.
An event spokesperson said the balloon involved in crashed was independent, and not connected to the festival. They said: "There was an incident this morning, under investigation, it wasn’t the festival it was independent.
"The festival finished last night, it was not connected to the festival."
The tragedy has since been reported to the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), who confirmed on Twitter that they were “deploying a team to the site”.
A West Mercia Police spokesperson said: “At 6.20am this morning police received a call a hot air balloon had deflated and fallen to the ground near the A449 at Ombersley.
“The balloon fell to the ground in a field off Holt Fleet Road, near Ombersley Court. Emergency services attended and unfortunately a man was pronounced dead by paramedics.
“The Air Accident Investigation Branch will now carry out an investigation.”
The victim's family is being supported by specialist family liaison officers.
Witnesses said the balloon "went up like tissue paper" and that they heard a "terrible scream" coming from the balloon as it plunged to the
One said: “There were lots of balloons in the sky because it was clear and sunny despite being so early. Suddenly there was a flash and what looked like a fireball coming from a blue balloon and it just dropped like a stone.
“My wife heard terrible screaming and then silence. We called the emergency services but had difficulty getting through on the 999 number because it was down.
“We finally got through but it was just too high for anyone to survive. It was a terrible thing to see."
Another witness was driving along the A449 from Kidderminster to Worcester at 6.15am when he saw the balloon burst into flames.
He said: "I told my partner to take a picture because the balloons looked lovely. Seconds later one of them burst into flames and plummeted to the ground.
"Once it caught fire it went up like tissue paper, it was burnt in about 10 seconds. We couldn’t believe it.
"We thought from that height there would definitely be a fatality. It fell like a rocket and shook us up to watch."
A spokesperson for Hereford and Worcestershire Fire Service added: "We went out to an incident involving a hot air balloon in Ombersley on the Holt Fleet Road.
"We had a call at 6.23am, crews from Worcester, Droitwich, Wyre Forest, Evesham and Bromsgrove.
"We have left the scene now, but we have left it to the police."
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