A 27-year-old pregnant woman was killed and 11 people were injured after their illegally operated hot air balloon crashed in Brazil.
The balloon took off from Boituva, a city in the southeastern of São Paulo, Sunday morning and was spotted in Capela do Alto when it suddenly began to lose altitude, a video showed.
A second video filmed by one of the 35 passengers on board showed the balloon violently crashing into a wooded area.
Juliana Pereira, a psychologist, was rushed to an area medical facility, where she died, the São Paulo Military Police said.
The injured victims were taken to an urgent care facility in Capela do Alto and the Sorocaba Hospital Center in Sorocaba.
One of the passengers told cops that hot air balloon’s gondola struck the ground twice before stopping on the ground.
Pereira and her husband, Leandro Pereira had recently married and took the hot air balloon ride to celebrate Valentine’s Day – which is celebrated in Brazil on June 12.
‘She was a very, very loved person. I can’t believe Ju left,’ Leandro’s grandmother, Maria Aquino, told Brazilian news outlet G1. ‘I still can’t believe it, guys. A trip like that took her away.’
A hot air balloon set out for a flight despite bad weather and crashed in Capela do Alto, Brazil on Sunday, killing one person and injuring 11
Juliana Pereira set out on the hot air balloon trip to celebrate Valentine’s Day – which is observed June 12 in Brazil – when the balloon crashed mid-flight Sunday. The 27-year-old was rushed to an area hospital in São Paulo, where she died. Her husband survived
Leandro’s aunt, Jessica Aquino, questioned the pilot’s decision to carry on with the flight despite what she described as unsafe weather conditions.
‘She really wanted to come on this trip. But how can they put 33 people inside a balloon in weather like this?’ Jessica said.
‘Today the weather was horrible, very windy, so it was completely negligent of those people who put them inside.’
The Brazilian Ballooning Confederation had suspended flights in the area due to weather.
It also cancelled events for the 38th edition of the Brazilian Hot Air Ballooning Championship that had been scheduled for the morning and afternoon.
Companies manning tourists flights should have followed the Brazilian Ballooning Confederation’s warning and suspended activities.
Juliana and Leandro Pereira had been recently married. Juliana, who died in the hot air balloon crash, was pregnant with the couple’s first child
The hot air balloon is owned by Aventurar, which had been forced to shut down its operations after failing to comply with safety guidelines but reopened with a new business identification number
The hot air balloon pilot, Fabio Pereira, who was not related to the married couple, was arrested by the Civil Police on aggravated manslaughter and irregular ballooning activity charges.
Investigators found that he was only licensed to perform private flights.
Aventurar, the company that owns the balloon, had been previously forced to shut down its operation for failing to comply with guidelines and later reopened for with a new business identification number, Metropoles newspaper reported.
‘The balloon was clandestine and has no connection with the entity or the event,’ Brazilian Hot Air Ballooning Championship president, Jhonny Silva, told O Globo newspaper.
