On June 26, 2021, a terrible disaster occurred in New Mexico, USA. On a busy street in Albuquerque , people watched helplessly as a flying hot air balloon fell off and the basket fell from an altitude of more than 30 meters and hit the ground. , then caught fire, and despite the efforts of passers-by to put it out, all five people in the gondola died; and the hot air balloon crashed onto a power line in the middle of the street, causing power outages to 13,000 residents.
Albuquerque is the largest city in New Mexico with a population of more than 900,000. It holds a hot air balloon festival every October and is the largest international hot air balloon carnival in the world. Albuquerque holds a large-scale hot-air balloon launch event every year. More than 500 hot-air balloons rise into the sky in two waves. The entire sky is filled with colorful hot-air balloons. It is very spectacular and is also a favorite painting subject of local artists. Even at night, a large number of hot air balloons will be illuminated by propane burners, making it look like a dream and a fairy tale world.
A hot air balloon generates hot air through combustion and injects it into the airbag. Due to the volume expansion of the hot air, the air density inside the airbag is smaller than the outside, thus generating buoyancy to lift the load into the sky. The earliest hot air balloon actually appeared during the Three Kingdoms period in China. This is the famous Kongming Lantern. Legend has it that it was invented by Zhuge Liang to transmit military signals. But like many other inventions, for the next two thousand years, the Kongming Lantern has always been the Kongming Lantern, and there has been no further development or application.
It was not until 1783 that the French paper manufacturers Montgolfier brothers invented the hot air balloon based on the same principle and performed it for the king and 130,000 citizens. A chicken, a duck and a sheep also became the world's most famous people on the planet. The first animals to take off on human aircraft; two months later, on November 21, the Montgolfier brothers performed a manned flight demonstration, a full 120 years before the Wright brothers' aircraft.
Since the earliest hot air balloons required a brazier to burn solid fuel to heat the air, which was very impractical and inconvenient, they were quickly replaced by the smaller hydrogen balloon invented by Professor Jacques Charles in December 1783. Nearly 200 years later, The time of balloon flight was dominated by hydrogen balloons. It was not until the 1950s that people invented convenient and low-cost bottled gas, which led to the resurgence of hot air ballooning. China only introduced the first hot air balloon in the 1980s. Zhuge Liang beat the coffin board for two thousand years and finally lowered his fist in the coffin.
Hot air balloons are considered to be very safe flying tools because they take off slowly, land slowly, and can only fly under good weather conditions; hot air balloons generally have two independent gas systems to provide safety redundancy; in addition, even if In the event of a serious malfunction, the air in the airbag will slowly cool down, turning the airbag into a parachute and slowly falling to the ground. The landing speed will be slower than a paratrooper's parachute landing; in addition, hot air balloon pilots must also specialize in avoiding collisions with power lines. training, and collisions with power lines are actually very rare. According to the U.S. Aviation Administration, hot air balloons are the safest form of all air travel, with catastrophic accidents rarely occurring.
However, hot air balloons cannot guarantee absolute safety. Since hot air balloons have no power and are difficult to control, sudden bad weather or malfunctions may still lead to disasters. Hot air balloons mainly adjust their buoyancy by heating the gas inside the bag. The temperature inside the bag usually reaches about 120 degrees. If the temperature is too high, the load is too large, or the ball is aged, it may cause safety hazards. In addition, although the structure of the hot air balloon is extremely simple, , but problems with the burner , such as fuel leakage, ruptured hoses, holes in the capsule, etc., coupled with the pilot's poor handling, will still cause safety hazards.
According to U.S. statistics, there have been 12 hot air balloon accidents in the United States since 2008. In Rio Rancho, just outside Albuquerque, there were two incidents, including a passenger who was ejected from the pod after a hard landing and died from his injuries.In July 2016, Texas a hot air balloon hit a high-voltage power line and burst into flames, killing all 16 crew members. This was the worst hot air balloon disaster in U.S. history and the second largest hot air balloon disaster in the world.
The world's largest hot air balloon disaster occurred in Egypt. In February 2013, a hot air balloon carrying 21 passengers (including the driver) in the village of Hagar Dahabiya in Luxor, Egypt After liftoff, due to a leak in the fuel pipe, the pilot operated the balloon to land a few meters above the ground and caught fire. The fire quickly engulfed the gondola. The pilot did not bother to close the valve and jumped out of the gondola with a passenger. In order to take care of them, some ground staff also loosened the tether, causing the burning balloon to rise rapidly due to the reduced weight and sudden gusts of wind. Seven passengers jumped from a high altitude, and the others were taken to an altitude of 300 meters and burned alive. Afterwards, the remains of the balloon and the passengers fell to the ground, causing a violent explosion that could be heard several kilometers away. The disaster ultimately killed 19 people, including 9 tourists from Hong Kong, China.
In 1989, two hot air balloons collided in Alice Springs, Australia, resulting in 13 deaths. According to incomplete statistics, since the first fatal accident involving a hot air balloon (including a hydrogen balloon) in 1785, at least 178 people have died in hot air balloon accidents.
Guilin Yangshuo There was also a hot air balloon explosion accident in 2009. Due to excessive landing, the gondola hit the ground, causing the cylinder to leak and burn. Two drivers and one passenger jumped off, causing the balloon to lose weight and explode in the air. The remaining Four Dutch tourists fell from a height and died immediately.
Therefore, it is difficult to escape from a hot air balloon disaster. Once someone escapes, it may cause the balloon to rise rapidly and bring other people to high altitudes and burn them alive; unless everyone jumps off at the same time, this is simply impossible in an emergency. .
