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Fiesta balloonist dies in fall from gondola
Collision with utility line blamed for woman's plunge from gondola
Bill Birkley/Special to The Tribune
A California woman died this morning after falling out of a hot-air balloon. The gondola of the balloon became entangled in a utility line near Montaño Road Northeast and I-25. Bystander Bill Birkley stopped to shoot photos of the incident and watched the woman fall.
Photo by Jeff AlexanderTribune
Tribune
State Police officers remove a propane tank from the scene near Monta¤o Road Northeast and I-25 where a woman fell to her death early this morning.
Photo by Mark HolmTribune
Tribune
Bystanders huddle in the early morning chill as emergency responders investigate a balloon crash site at the Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Flood Control Authority pond near Comanche Road and Vassar Drive Northeast this morning.
Video and map
A look at previous deadly balloon crashes in Albuquerque
Oct. 10, 1979: Two California balloonists were killed while trying to fly over Sandia Crest. A gust of wind caught the balloon, and it caught fire. The fiesta was under way, but they were not participants in the event.
Oct. 3, 1982: Four people were killed and five injured when a balloon, called El Globo Grande, crashed into the Rio Grande about one mile north of Montaño Road Northwest. The balloon's envelope caught fire from a suspected liquid propane leak, forcing the four victims, two from Albuquerque, two from London, to jump to their deaths mid-flight.
Oct. 6, 1990: Two Albuquerque men were killed when a balloon hit a power line and caught fire near the border of Sandia Pueblo in Sandoval County. Witnesses said the balloon struck power lines about 100 feet above ground and burst into flames.
Oct. 9, 1993: Two men, one from Albuquerque and one from Mississippi, were killed when the balloon's envelope became distorted and deflated rapidly. After contacting power lines, the basket fell to the ground near Alameda and San Mateo boulevards Northeast and the envelope drifted away.
Oct. 5, 1998: A Toledo, Ohio, woman was killed when the balloon she was riding in, called the Wayfinder, crashed at Kirtland Air Force Base, injuring 12 others. The balloon encountered sudden wind shifts and hit two sets of power lines before it fell. The balloon was not a registered fiesta participant.
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A California woman riding in a hot-air balloon died after tumbling out of a gondola that became tangled in a utility line near Montaño Road Northeast and I-25 early this morning.
State Police spokesman Andrew Tingwall identified the victim, one of five people aboard the balloon, as Rosemary Wooley Phillips, 60, who is believed to be from Oceanside, Calif.
The balloon, called Heavenly Ride, was piloted by Tom Reyes, 57, of Sandia Park, Tingwall said.
Officials at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta canceled flights after the incident but said events will continue as scheduled for the remainder of the week.
Workers at a nearby Arby's restaurant saw the balloon about 7:45 a.m. when its gondola hooked on a fiber optic cable.
Store manager Anthony Lucero said he, along with several other employees of Arby's and other businesses, ran out to help.
Lucero said the pilot threw out a tether line, which the group on the ground held onto.
As they held down the balloon, pilot Reyes fired the balloon's burner to keep the canopy full and steady, Lucero said.
It was hard to keep the balloon in place because of the wind, so bystanders tied the tether to a pickup truck, said Michael Reid, another Arby's employee in the vacant field just north of Montaño Road and west of I-25.
Reid was hanging on at the front of the tether and saw 10 to 15 others holding on behind him, he said.
"It lifted me off the ground," said Reid, who weighs 280 pounds.
When the tether suddenly snapped, Lucero said, "The (propane) tank fell out, the lady fell out and the balloon took off like a rocket."
Phillips fell an estimated 80 feet, and landed "flat on her back" near the group of people on the ground, Lucero said.
Emergency medical technicians tried to revive her but were unsuccessful, Tingwall said.
The balloon, meanwhile, flew about 3 1/2 miles and landed in a field near Comanche Road and Vassar Drive Northeast.
Keith Mills of Piedmont, Okla., had just landed in the same field when he saw Reyes' balloon come in for a landing.
"They hit pretty hard, but they didn't bounce or tip," he said.
Mills and his passenger, a nurse, ran over to help. One of three passengers said she thought she might have a broken leg, Mills said. She was sitting on the two other passengers, so they lifted her out of the gondola and set her down on a pile of sand.
Mills didn't know at the time that one of the passengers had fallen out, he said. The pilot didn't appear to be injured and didn't go to the hospital, Mills said.
The balloon, flying in the 36th annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, also carried Sheryl Diaz, 60; Susan Simpson, 57; and Doris Currier, 52, all of California.
The women had bought tickets to ride with Reyes from Rainbow Ryders, balloon fiesta spokeswoman Denise Winn said.
Rides cost about $300 a person but Winn said she was not sure what the women paid.
Bill Birkley, who works for DirecTV, was driving near Arby's when he saw the balloon tangled in the wire and pulled over to take photographs.
The pilot was in a difficult spot, Birkley said, trying to keep the balloon upright as the wind pushed it up against the power lines before the tether snapped.
When the gondola broke loose, "It looked like the bottom of the basket ripped open," Birkley said. "All this stuff fell out, and a woman fell out with it. She was flailing her arms and screaming."
John Welborn, an Arby's worker who lives in apartments across the street, saw the scene from his window, he said.
"I saw a rope come down — and that rope kept tightening up and then I saw something fall out," Welborn said. "I was hoping it wasn't a person, but I guess it was."
Joela Bezzeg said she and her sister were walking out of their apartment southeast of the crash site to watch the balloons when they said they saw Heavenly Ride descending quickly with a "flat top."
Bezzeg said the balloon rose quickly then descended again slowly.
Still, she said, when it landed it landed hard.
"It was not a landing. It was a fall," Bezzeg said.
The balloon crash-landed in a large pond area used by AMAFCA for road material and trash storage.
Chase-crew vehicles from Mills' balloon and from the Albuquerque balloon ride company Skyspan Adventures were at the scene where the balloon lay collapsed over razor wire fencing and chunks of concrete.
One man sat sobbing on a large chunk of asphalt.
Back at the scene where Phillips fell, police chaplains met with workers, who appeared shaken and traumatized by the event.
"It's tough. It's tough," Lucero said. "You just can't believe something like this could happen."
Birkley said seeing the crash is not something he'll get over anytime soon.
"It's horrible to see someone perish like that," Birkley said. "There's nothing you can do about it. That feeling of helplessness is just horrible."
Balloons took off this morning from Balloon Fiesta Park amid brilliant sunshine and cold temperatures. Balloonists said later that winds were about 10 mph, "at the upper end" of flying weather when the first flights occurred around dawn.
Mills and other pilots said the winds were not too fast to fly in.
Peter Scherm, who has more than 30 years of experience flying hot-air balloons, was among several hundred who launched this morning. It is always up to the pilot's discretion whether to fly, he said.
"No one's twisting anybody's arm to fly," Scherm said. "You just need to make sure you know what you're doing."
Other pilots agreed, saying launching a balloon is never mandatory, but landing it always is. They said it is important for pilots to judge whether conditions are within their comfort level, because it can be easy to feel pressure to fly based on their peers or fiesta officials.
"One interesting thing I have learned about balloonists is there is a lemming effect, and that's all an attitude thing," said Gary Jantz, a pilot with 16 years of experience. "Everybody says, `If he can do it, I can do it.' But that may not always be the case."
Throughout the park, balloonists held moments of silence in honor of the victims of today's crash, but maintained positive feelings about the sport, saying it is one of the safest in aviation.
