It all started as a fun adventure, a joyful ride. As passengers of the "Mr Big" hot air balloon
feet (900 meters), the thrill of floating through the air as the birds pass by beats any fears.
Indeed, everything seemed perfect after the balloon lifted off from
Carterton that early morning on January 7, 2012. The skies were clear,
and the landscape was stunning. Passengers inside the balloon had all the reasons to enjoy the ride.
No one was expecting the end of the flight would turn into an aviation disaster:
Emergency cars and members of passengers' families surrounded the small field where
the balloon was supposed to land. In the middle of the field, bounded by a police tape, on the ground
stood the remains of the balloon. Around it, the bodies of passengers and the pilot lay strewn,
burned beyond recognition. The ride of a lifetime turned into a nightmarish tragedy.
Riding a hot air balloon is not as dangerous as one might think.
According to the Aviation Accident Database, it is one of the safest forms of air travel.
There are very few crashes involving balloons, far less than any other means of transportation.
The statistics show a higher chance of being injured while traveling by car.
That is because balloons only fly when the skies are clear, and the winds are good. Commercial
hot air balloons such as Mr. Big often take tours within two hours of sunrise or sunset,
when winds are the calmest. Calm winds are necessary for balloon pilots to use for steering,
as they have no other means to control the aircraft.
Flying a balloon in turbulent weather is practically impossible.
The weather was perfect on January 7, 2012, the day of the accident.
Yet, the balloon crashed and left eleven people dead. A pilot can make a hot air balloon ride
quite dangerous no matter how safe it is. The pilot in charge of Mr. Big was local,
Lance Hopping. Hopping was an experienced 53-year-old pilot with over 1,000 hours
of commercial ballooning. His colleagues described him as "very safety conscious."
He was engaged as safety manager of the popular event “Balloons Over Wairarapa.” His portfolio
hardly made him likely to crash a balloon. The balloon he was flying, a Cameron A-210 model,
registered ZK-XXF was in good condition. The envelope was produced in 1997, and the basket and
burner system in 1989. Despite the long service, the balloon and its parts were maintained properly
and passed regular safety inspections. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it.
With an experienced pilot such as Hopping and the balloon in neat condition, the Carterton crash
sounds like an unusual scenario. So how did it happen?
The accident occurred in the Wairarapa region, some 50 miles (80km) northeast of New Zealand’s
capital, Wellington. The area is one of the most popular for ballooning because of its
beautiful landscape. January is a month of summer in New Zealand, the best period to fly
in a hot air balloon. Before the flight, as usual,
the crew prepared the balloon and checked the weather. The pilot himself also made sure
everything was all right. Sun rose a few minutes before 06:00, and Mr. Big lifted off at 06:39 from
the town of Carterton. There were ten passengers and the pilot inside, a full basket capacity.
All passengers were from the Wellington area: two husband-and-wife couples, two couples, and two
cousins. Shortly after the lift-off, the crew on the ground contacted the pilot informing him the
lift-off site was clear. Hopper responded to the call and reported everything was in perfect order.
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half an hour up in the air, the pilot received another call, a reminder that the landing time
was near. Hopper replied to the crew in chase vehicles that he was about to land the balloon
in the Somerset Road area, close to Carterton. Chase vehicles are often used in ballooning
and are engaged in following the balloon, carrying the equipment, assisting the pilot in landing, and
transporting the passengers back to the lift-off site. There were two following Mr. Big that day.
Five minutes after the call, the pilot descended the balloon for landing. He crossed Somerset Road,
approaching the landing site on the western side of it but then lifted the balloon
and made a maneuver northeast, away from the site. Even though he was flying away, the pilot
radioed the crew from the chase vehicles to wait for him at the previously arranged landing site.
After 1,300 feet (400 meters), the pilot made a u-turn and drifted the balloon back toward
Somerset Road. A slight breeze blew from the north when he came a few hundred meters from
the landing site, pushing the balloon across the nearby sillage paddock on the eastern side of
the road. The balloon was five to seven meters from the ground and was ascending once again.
Between the paddock and the landing site was a 33-kilovolt power line with an average height
of about 30feet (9 m). The pilot applied the burners trying to out-climb the power lines,
but the basket caught under three top wires. Entangled in high voltage wires,
the balloon was still ascending, pulling the wire along even though the burners were switched off.
The pilot and the passengers were unsuccessfully trying to slide the wires off the basket
when an electrical arcing occurred and ignited the lower part of the basket.
Unfortunately, the arcing ruptured one of the liquefied petroleum gas cylinders inside
the basket and let the fuel out. The fire caught the entire basket in a split second,
flame reaching the envelope. Two passengers, trying to avoid the blaze, jumped out
of the basket and fell to the ground, dying instantly. It was 07:22 when the fire occurred.
On the ground, there were locals, crew, and passengers’ relatives from the chase vehicles
watching in horror as the flame swallowed the basket and the people inside.
They could hear their screams as they died in agony. The balloon was still ascending,
pulling the wires along to the height of 65 feet (20 meters) above the ground.
About 80 seconds after the arcing, wires snapped and let the balloon loose.
Now entirely engulfed in flame, the balloon continued to climb for another 40 seconds
to a height of between 360 to 500 feet (110 and 150 m). At that point, the envelope burned out,
and the balloon began to fall. Finally, two minutes and five seconds after the arcing,
the balloon hit the ground on the field across Somerset Road.
The first emergency vehicle arrived from Carterton on the scene at 07:29. The crew from
the chase cars called them at 07:23. Emergency staff extinguished the still burning basket
and envelope, but there was nothing they could do for the passengers and the pilot.
Unfortunately, they were all dead. Nine burned bodies were scattered around the basket, while
the bodies of the two passengers who jumped out were found 220 yards (200) meters from that spot.
A few hours after, a Transport Accident Investigation Commission crew arrived at the
scene. They briefly examined the wreckage and the broken power lines at the site before taking all
evidence to the Commission facilities. Bodies of killed passengers and the pilot were taken
to Wellington Hospital to be officially identified and examined by pathologists.
The Commission released the first interim report on February 15, 2012. A more detailed,
final report was approved for publication a year and a half later, in October 2013.
The Commission made a thorough report concluding that the “pilot had not intended to land in the
paddock bounded by the power lines and that it had been an unsafe maneuver to allow the balloon
to descend below the level of the power lines and remain at low level as it crossed the paddock.”
They also pointed out that when the collision with the power line became unavoidable,
“the pilot should have followed the balloon manufacturer’s advice
and rapidly descended his balloon instead of making it climb. Had he done so,
the balloon occupants would have had a better chance of survival.” Regarding the state of the
balloon and its comprising parts, the commission found no deficiencies or maintenance issues.
What was the reason an experienced pilot like Lance Hopping made such a tragic mistake?
The final report provided Hopping’s post-mortem toxicology tests showing he had two micrograms
per liter of the blood of tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, an active ingredient of cannabis. This
level of THC in the pilot’s blood implied he had used cannabis recently and that he was
a long-term user. In addition, witnesses at Carterton later claimed to have seen Hopper
smoking that day before the lift-off but didn’t know whether he smoked tobacco or marijuana.
On top of everything, the report showed the pilot’s medical certificate expired
six weeks before the crash, which means he wasn’t supposed to fly the balloon in the first place.
The Commission refrained from claiming that the presence of THC in the pilot’s
blood had caused the accident but stressed the fact that cannabis affects a person's
judgment and ability to make decisions. The report concluded that pilots should be
prohibited from using cannabis. It also noted that power lines posed a critical danger to ballooning.
The Commission also made an official recommendation to the government
about passing legislation concerning the use of performance-impairing substances
in all transport modes. They also recommended that the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand
address any maintenance issues with the balloon industry and bring attention to the lack of
regulations regarding commercial ballooning. The conclusions and recommendations were to
remind us that even the slightest mistake can lead to accidents with tragic outcomes in aviation.
In the case of the Carterton hot air balloon crash, it took a minor misjudgment and less than a
minute to turn an exciting ride into the deadliest ballooning disaster ever to occur in New Zealand.