OTTAWA (AP) — A hot-air balloon caught fire and crashed after hitting a power line, killing a 15-year-old girl and critically injuring her father, a professional balloon pilot who was at the controls.
Julie Boileau, of Ottawa, was killed Saturday night when a gust of wind picked the balloon off the ground and pushed it into the 25,000-volt line, said Luc Madore, a member of the balloon’s ground team.
Jean Boileau, the organizer of a popular ballooning festival, was critically injured and taken to Ottawa Hospital. Another adult and a teen-ager were hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening.
The balloon had just touched down in a field south of the Canadian capital and the ground crew, which included Boileau’s wife, was holding on to the basket when the wind carried it off.
“It was a normal landing procedure. Then a strong gust of wind lifted the balloon upright and it moved laterally,” Madore said. “The pilot gave it all the gas he could, but the balloon touched the third wire, slid on it. There were sparks.”
The basket caught fire and crashed in the field, witnesses said.
“All we saw was them hit the main wire and all of a sudden — kaboom,” said Richard Bergeron.
Bergeron and others said they tried to keep Boileau from going back into the fire for his daughter.
“We pulled him out of the basket and he was trying to get back in” said Wade Briscoe. “He went back four times.”
Boileau is the organizer of the Gatineau Balloon Festival, one of the world’s largest. The balloonists were promoting the event, which starts Aug. 31, by flying over crowds at the Francophone Games in Ontario.
