PINAL COUNTY, AZ — Four people are dead and a fifth is critically hurt after a hot air balloon crash Sunday morning in Pinal County.
Eloy police say it happened around 7:30 a.m. in a rural desert area about five miles north of the town.
The mayor of Eloy said that 13 people — eight skydivers, four passengers, and a pilot — had been in the balloon, which was operated by Droplyne Hot Air Balloon Rides. Before the crash, the skydivers exited the gondola. Witnesses told officials that the balloon was straight up and down before a hard impact.
One person was pronounced dead at the scene, while the other three died at a hospital. One person is in critical condition at a Valley hospital.
Eloy police identified the four people who died as:
- Chayton Wiescholek, 28, from Union City, Michigan
- Kaitlynn "Katie" Bartrom, 28, from Andrews, Indiana
- Atahan Kiliccote, 24, from Cupertino, California
- Cornelius Van Der Walt, 37, originally from Namibia, residing in Eloy, AZ, and identified as the pilot
A 23-year-old woman from Scottsdale, identified by family as Valerie, was released from the hospital in May and continues to recover at home.
The family of 28-year-old Katie Bartrom told ABC15 she was a registered nurse from Indiana. Bartrom's mom, Jennifer Hubartt, says she loved skydiving and adventure.
"It's kind of somber here at home. We're crying about her on and off and talking about her on and off still trying to make it real," said Hubartt. "She was a beautiful person, she recently became an RN and was making it on her own."
Hubartt said Bartrom traveled from Indiana to Arizona with friends.
"I talked to her while she was down there and she was really enjoying the experience and having fun and seeing a new place that she had never seen before."
Several friends in the skydiving community told ABC15 the pilot, Cornelius Van Der Walt, died in the crash.
Valley skydivers Tanya Toliver and David Boone say they've been on Van Der Walt's balloon.
"That balloon was the first balloon that I did my first hot, like hot air balloon ride on and skydive on and we've jumped on that balloon so many times," said Toliver.
"It hit me as a shock. Just because, you know, Cornelius is always super careful. He's very, very aware of what he's doing. He's been doing it for a long, long time and he only got better with time," said Boone. "He was just an excellent balloon pilot. It's not like he wasn't experienced to dropping skydivers. There's definitely [a] different way to do it. So he knew what he was doing."
Boone said in order to jump from a hot air balloon, divers are required to have a certain license and have done at least 50 skydives. The balloon also has to be in descent when divers are exiting.
“The hot air balloon takes you up to about 10,000 feet and then you exit accordingly. You know by weight, size, you know... on each side of the gondola," Boone said.
Eloy police are working with federal agencies, including the NTSB and FAA to investigate the crash.
NTSB officials say the balloon crashed after an unspecified problem with its envelope. The NTSB says no mechanical anomalies were found during their initial examinations of the balloon, and that everything appears to be intact on the basket. Details on the specific problem with the envelope will be released at a later date.
This incident remains under investigation.