Relatives of nine Hong Kong residents who were killed in a fatal balloon accident in Egypt were headed to Cairo Wednesday to claim the bodies, a day after the balloon exploded into a fireball while preparing to land.
The five women and four men from Hong Kong who died in the accident Tuesday were part of a group that was on a 10-day visit to Egypt, and they were taking the balloon for a tour over the ancient temples of Luxor when it burst into flames, killing 19 people in all.
Immigration officers from Hong Kong have been dispatched to travel with the families of the victims to Cairo, where the bodies have been transported to four local hospitals.
The Hong Kong travel agency that handled the trip to Luxor, Kuoni Travel, said Wednesday that it was arranging for the six other members of the tour who chose not to participate in the balloon trip to leave Egypt and return to Hong Kong.
The disaster unfolded in just minutes as the pilot was pulling a rope to stabilize the balloon when a gas hose ripped and a fire started, security officials said. Besides the nine people from Hong Kong who were killed, the accident took the lives of four Japanese, two French, two Britons, a Hungarian and an Egyptian.
The bodies of the victims were strewn about the field where the balloon exploded.
The victims from Hong Kong were from three families who took the tour, which cost roughly $1,400 per person. Kuoni Travel said it was considering extra compensation for the families in addition to the $7,000 they are already eligible to receive.
The accident has posed a new challenge to Egypt’s already struggling tourism industry, which has only begun to recover from the turmoil that followed the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.
Egyptian state media reported that some of the dead had been “cremated” in the fireball. The Health Ministry said it would use DNA testing to identify the remains, although Kuoni Travel itself released the names of the Hong Kong victims, identifying them only by their family names.
Raymond Ng, a general manager for Kuoni Travel, said the agency had used the company the handled the balloon tour, Sky Cruises, regularly in the past.
“We have a set of criteria when it comes to which hot-air balloon company we use,” he said. “Most importantly, the company needs to be well known, and has taken enough safety procedures.”
Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Japanese victims were two couples in their 60s from Tokyo, but the ministry did not release their names.
New York Times
