A pilot has been arrested after a hot air balloon bursts into flames in Mexico, killing a couple. Their teenage daughter was left badly injured after miraculously surviving a 131-foot jump.
Victor Guzmán was arrested after jumping 16 feet out of the flaming balloon and running away from the scene. He was admitted after being discharged from hospital with burns that covered 90 percent of his body.
José Nolasco, 50, and his wife Viridiana Becerril, 39, were killed when the plane fell in the fiery crash over a pre-Hispanic pyramid complex in Teotihuacán, Mexico state, on Saturday.
Her 13-year-old daughter Regina Itzani survived after jumping from the stricken plane before it hit the ground, but she remains hospitalized with a broken arm and second-degree burns.
Guzmán told agents with the Attorney General of Mexico that he left the balloon the family was renting for a surprise birthday trip because he didn’t know how to respond to the emergency.
Pilot Víctor Guzmán was taken into custody Sunday hours at a hospital in central Mexico after fleeing a hot air balloon that caught fire and crashed, killing a couple and injuring his 13-year-old daughter
Jose Nolasco and his wife Viridiana Becerril with their daughter Regina Itzani. Itzani told her maternal grandmother that her parents hugged her just before her jump
Víctor Guzmán told police he was scared because he didn’t know how to deal with the incident and abandoned the hot air balloon
Mexico’s aviation authority is investigating a hot air balloon fire on Saturday morning that killed a couple and injured their daughter
The chilling video footage shows occupants appearing to either fall or jump out of the vehicle, all to the dismay of onlookers.
Witnesses said Guzmán jumped from the balloon as it was ablaze about 16 feet above the ground, leaving the family behind.
He fell to the ground and ran. The impact of the accident shattered the balloon and his car was completely burned.
Forensic scientists are working in the area where a hot air balloon caught fire and collapsed on Saturday, killing a couple and injuring their daughter
Forensic scientists and members of the National Guard are working at the area where a hot air balloon caught fire and brought down Teotihuacán, state of Mexico
The hot air balloon ride was scheduled as a surprise for Becerril, her mother Reyna Sarmiento Milenio said.
It took off around 8am and eventually encountered a problem with its gas system, causing the cabin to catch fire.
Itzani told her grandmother that her parents hugged her when the balloon caught fire. She is said to have jumped out of the balloon while it was on fire.
“The girl tells us that the gas tank there, the hydrostatic gas tank, started to glow and that’s what started burning,” Sarmiento. “She says her parents hugged her, but she turned away from them and jumped.”
The National Guard and experts are investigating the crash site where a hot air balloon caught fire in mid-flight over the Teotihuacán archaeological zone on Saturday
The Federal Aviation Agency is leading the investigation and is checking whether Autocinema Retroviso is licensed to operate the hot air balloon service and whether it has adequate accident insurance.
The company is owned by Zaid Sánchez, whose uncle Mario Vidal is an officer in the Teotihuacán Department of Public Safety.
The Teotihuacán Hot Air Balloon Federation said in a statement that of the eight companies offering such a service, Autocinema Retroviso is not among them.
“It is imperative that the same authorities act effectively to halt the operations of businesses that unfortunately operate outside the law and sometimes covertly, compromising the safety of the operations of all of us who operate in close proximity to the archaeological site of Teotihuacán,” the association said.