Hot-air balloon in Brazil catches fire and falls from the sky, killing 8 and injuring 13

RIO DE JANEIRO — A hot-air balloon caught fire and tumbled from the sky on Saturday in Brazil’s southern state of Santa Catarina, killing eight people, firefighters said.

Footage shared by local news outlet G1 showed billows of smoke coming from the flaming balloon as it hurtled toward the ground in the municipality of Praia Grande.

In a video on social media, two people can be seen falling through the air as the fire spread through the aircraft.

Thirteen people survived and were taken to hospitals, Santa Catarina’s military fire brigade said, adding that 21 people were on board including the pilot. The crash happened around 8 a.m. local time, said Lt. Col. Zevir Cipriano Jr., a military firefighter. A fire started in the basket, prompting the pilot to try to land the balloon.

Thirteen people, including the pilot, managed to jump out, but eight were unable to. Without the weight of the others, the balloon began rising again.

“These people ended up dying — four charred and another four jumped out of the balloon when it was falling,” Cipriano said.

Three people died hugging one another, Ulisses Gabriel, chief of Santa Catarina’s civil police force, said on X. “It hurts the soul.”

“We are in mourning. A tragedy has happened. We will see how it unfolds, what happened, why it happened. But the important thing now is for the state structure to do what it can,” Gov. Jorginho Mello said in a video on X.

Mello said he has asked authorities to head to the municipality “to do as much as possible to rescue, to help, to take to hospital, to comfort the families.”

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva expressed his solidarity with victims’ families and said he was placing the federal government at the disposal of victims and local authorities.

“According to the pilot, who is one of the survivors, a fire started inside the basket and then he began to lower the balloon. When the balloon was very close to the ground, he ordered people to jump out of the basket,” the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo quoted Praia Grande head police officer Tiago Luiz Lemos as saying.

“Some of them didn’t manage to jump. The fire increased and the balloon ended up falling,” Lemos added, according to the newspaper.

G1 reported that the balloon’s expected flight time was 45 minutes, reaching an altitude of about 3,280 feet, at a cost of about $100 per passenger.

Sobrevoar, the company responsible for the multicolored balloon, said it complied with all regulations and had a clean accident record prior to Saturday.

“Despite all necessary precautions and the efforts of our pilot — who has extensive experience and followed all recommended procedures in an attempt to save everyone on board the balloon — we are suffering from the pain caused by this tragedy,” it said in a statement.

Sobrevoar said it was suspending all operations indefinitely.

Praia Grande is a common destination for hot-air ballooning, a popular activity in parts of southern Brazil. The area is famous for its dramatic canyon landscapes and is known as the Brazilian Cappadocia, a reference to a region in central Turkey famed worldwide for stunning hot-air balloon rides.

Last Sunday, a balloon came down in Sao Paulo state, killing a 27-year-old woman and injuring 11 other people, G1 reported.

Hughes writes for the Associated Press.