Placentia Woman Still Critical After Balloon Accident

A Placentia woman who was the most severely injured survivor of a freak hot-air balloon accident that killed one person and injured eight others over the weekend remained in critical condition Monday in a Salt Lake City hospital.

Debbie Hamlin, 32, was in the intensive care unit of the University of Utah Health Science Center, suffering from head injuries and broken bones, a spokeswoman said. A family friend said she also underwent surgery on her spleen, is on a respirator and suffered burns on her feet.

Her husband, Bill Hamlin, 34, suffered a leg and ankle injury in the accident but was treated at a hospital and released and was at his wife’s bedside, according to Kathy Mackley of Portland, Ore., Debbie Hamlin’s cousin. Mackley is caring for the couple’s 2-year-old son at their Placentia home.

Summit County, Utah, authorities said the balloon suddenly descended into power lines near Summit City, a Wasatch Mountains community about 20 miles east of Salt Lake City, on Saturday morning. The power lines severed at least some of the cables connecting the balloon to its basket-like gondola, sending the nine people aboard tumbling 50 feet to the snow-covered ground. Some of the propane tanks aboard the balloon apparently ignited upon impact, burning the gondola.

Ruth Zuidema, a Hamlin family friend, said Bill Hamlin pulled his wife from the burning gondola. “Then he went back for the other man (another passenger still in the gondola) and pulled him out. He died in Bill’s arms.”

James David Farrell, 34, of Henderson, Nev., died at the scene, authorities said.

“Bill says he doesn’t even remember very much--it all happened so fast,” Zuidema said. “His first concern was to get his wife out.”

Zuidema and Mackley said the Hamlins had gone to Utah for a long weekend of skiing, leaving their son, Chance, in the care of Debbie Hamlin’s mother, Jean Crabtree, who lives with them. They were to have returned Sunday night.

None of them knew that the Hamlins planned to take the hot-air balloon ride, they said.

On Saturday, Crabtree was notified by Utah authorities about the crash, and she flew to Salt Lake City to be with her daughter, Zuidema said.

“She (Debbie) is improving, but she’s on a respirator,” said Zuidema. “We’re just so glad Bill got released and is able to be with Debbie as much as possible.”

“It was just a freak thing,” Mackley said. “But Bill said the most important thing now is for Debbie to get better and for Chance to be taken care of.”

Todd Burnette, the 16-year-old son of another passenger, Alice Lindahl, 35, of Ashland City, Tenn., said his mother told him the balloon “hit some wires, and then they just dropped.”

Tom Brundage, a spokesman for the Park City ballooning firm, Balloon of the Rockies, said the accident occurred after the pilot had cleared a mountain ridge and was making his descent to the landing area, ending a two-hour ride that began in Park City.

“It was a freak wind,” he said, describing it as a “rotor wind,” or an unstable wind that “rotates as it travels.”

But the weather Saturday “was just beautiful,” Brundage said. “There were a number of balloons up.”

Summit County Sheriff’s Detective Joe Offret said Monday that authorities were recovering debris from the crash but were hampered by stormy weather that also prevailed over the weekend. He said there was snow on the ground and winds were gusty Saturday, “which could have been a contributing factor.”

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the cause of the crash, authorities said.

The injured were taken by helicopters to three hospitals.

At the university Health Sciences Center, Kelly Farrell, 31, wife of the fatally injured passenger, had improved to stable condition Monday with a fractured pelvis, as had Alice Lindahl, who suffered a broken leg and ribs, a spokeswoman said.

Rick Hawk, 30, of Nashville, Tenn., had improved to satisfactory condition at LDS Hospital Monday, recuperating from a broken leg and ribs, a spokeswoman said. Gary Lawton, 30, of Park City, a student pilot, had been released from the hospital.

The pilot, Bryan Mills, 29, of Park City, was discharged Monday from Holy Cross Hospital, and John Lindahl, 38, of Ashland City, Tenn., was discharged Sunday, a spokesman there said.