Emergency providers function on the space the place a scorching air balloon crashed, leaving at the least 8 lifeless in Santa Catarina, Brazil on June 21, 2025. (Photograph by CBMSC/ Brazil / Handout/Anadolu by way of Getty Photos)
RIO DE JANEIRO – Firefighters in Brazil mentioned at the least eight folks had been killed after a hot-air balloon caught fireplace and tumbled from the sky on Saturday within the southern state of Santa Catarina.
Footage shared by native information outlet G1 confirmed billows of smoke coming from the balloon in flames because it hurtled towards the bottom within the municipality of Praia Grande.
What we all know:
Three folks died hugging one another, mentioned Ulisses Gabriel, chief of Santa Catarina’s civil police pressure, on X. “It hurts the soul.”
On a video on social media, two folks could be seen falling by way of the air as the hearth unfold onboard the plane.
13 folks survived and had been taken to hospitals, Santa Catarina’s navy fireplace brigade mentioned, including that 21 folks had been on board together with the pilot.
What we do not know:
A trigger has not been revealed.Â
What they’re saying:
“We’re in mourning. A tragedy has occurred. We are going to see the way it unfolds, what occurred, why it occurred. However the vital factor now’s for the state construction to do what it may well,” Gov. Jorginho Mello mentioned in a video on X.
Mello mentioned he has requested authorities to go to the municipality “to do as a lot as attainable to rescue, to assist, to take to hospital, to consolation the households.”
“In line with the pilot, who is among the survivors, a fireplace began contained in the basket after which he started to decrease the balloon. When the balloon was very near the bottom, he ordered folks to leap out of the basket,” Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper quoted Praia Grande head police officer Tiago Luiz Lemos as saying.
“A few of them didn’t handle to leap. The hearth elevated and the balloon ended up falling,” Lemos added.
Dig deeper:
G1 reported that the balloon’s anticipated flight time was 45 minutes, with the balloon reaching 1000 meters, and price 550 reais (round $100) per passenger.
Large image view:
Praia Grande is a standard vacation spot for hot-air ballooning, a well-liked exercise in some elements of Brazil’s south throughout June festivities that commemorate Catholic saints comparable to St. John, whose feast day is on June 24.
Final Sunday, a balloon got here down in Sao Paulo state, killing a 27-year-old girl and injuring 11 different folks, G1 reported.
The Supply: The Related Press contributed to this report. Data on this story comes from Brazilian authorities, together with Santa Catarina’s civil police and navy fireplace brigade, in addition to statements from native officers comparable to Governor Jorginho Mello. This story was reported from Los Angeles.Â
