Texas hot air balloon that killed 16 people hit power lines before crash

Part of the hot air balloon that crashed in Texas hit power lines when it went down, an NTSB spokesman said Sunday after investigators arrived at the accident scene in dusty pastureland south of Austin. All 16 people aboard the balloon -- 15 passengers and the pilot -- were killed in Saturday's crash. It's not clear what part of the balloon hit the lines, spokesman Robert Sumwalt said. It's also unclear whether the fire that broke out on the balloon happened before or after the collision, Sumwalt said.
The investigation will look at three main factors to determine the cause of the crash: the balloon, its operators and the environment, Sumwalt said. He said investigators are "trying to nail down as best we can" whether fog was a factor. Though it was foggy after the accident, Sumwalt said they don't yet know whether there was fog at the time of the crash. The NTSB said the identities of all the victims would be made public later by local authorities.

The FBI has found 14 personal electronic devices from those aboard the balloon, Sumwalt said. They include cell phones, one iPad, and three cameras. The cameras, he said, are destroyed, but he said he hopes NTSB lab technicians can recover the images.
Saturday's crash is the most fatal hot air balloon crash in U.S. history, according to NTSB figures. Previously, the country's deadliest hot air balloon crash was a 1993 accident in Colorado that killed six people. In 2013, 19 people died in a hot air balloon crash in Egypt, near the ancient city of Luxor. That was the world's deadliest hot air balloon accident in at least 20 years, CNN reports.