Balloon Snags Power Line, 2 Die in Crash

A hot air balloon in an annual aerial fiesta snagged a power line and crashed Saturday, killing both people aboard, authorities said.

The balloon, Sunrunner, was among more than 600 that took off together in a mass morning ascension.

“It hit a major power line at about 100 feet up,” Assistant Fire Chief Morris Huling said. “It severed the envelope and the basket fell straight to the ground.”

Veteran pilot Allan C. Jones of Albuquerque and passenger Karl Gordon of Mississippi were killed.

Jim Schumacher, fiesta president, said weather probably was not a factor in the crash, with light winds and clear skies prevailing.

The severed blue, gold, turquoise and red balloon envelope floated freely for awhile before landing in a residential neighborhood.

Marie Ruppenthal, the fiesta’s executive director, said Jones had flown balloons in the annual event for eight or nine years.

Sunrunner had landed once after the mass lift-off and was on at least its second flight of the day, event officials said. The Federal Aviation Administration and state police were investigating.

The last fatal balloon accident during the fiesta was in 1990, when a balloon hit a power line and burned about seven miles from the fiesta field, killing two people.