 This is one of the 20th century's most iconic photographs. I probably don't need to tell you what it is, but I will do anyway It's the Hindenburg Human history's worst light-of-an-air vehicle disaster. So 36 would perish in the 1937 disaster Now don't worry this video hasn't been titled incorrectly There is a point here. So nothing would get close in terms of death toll throughout the remainder of the 20th century It would take another 80 years from 1937 Until something would even get close to death toll of an aerostat accident and this was in 2013 This will be the focus of today's video in which beautiful views over the Nile and the Valley of the Kings Would end in tragedy Today we're looking at the Luxor hot-air balloon disaster. My name is John and welcome to Plain Difficult It's probably no surprise to anyone that Egypt is a massive destination for tourists The draw of the hot sun rich history and no end of things to see and do makes it a popular holiday choice I'm one of those people that have been there. I went there back in the mid-naughties a 40 degree week with a mix of sitting by the pool Visiting the pyramids and exploring the beautiful St. Catherine's Monastery basic tourist affair aside One thing I did notice was the plethora of excursion opportunities Helicopter rides camel rides cheap rides and even hot-air balloon rides This choice breeds competition amongst tour providers Which in turn fuels more tourists handing over their hard-earned money for once in a lifetime experiences Although I didn't end up visiting one option My first choice holiday rep was trying to flog me was a trip to Luxor The historically significant destination over the years had become known for its hot-air balloon industry a tradition running back Not so far into the 1990s At the time of introduction hot-air balloons offered a unique edge in the competitive day excursion market Over the years multiple operators would ply the popular early morning sightseeing flights But this popularity came with a risk During the mid-to-late noughties the hot-air balloon industry would experience a number of issues a 2013 article Article paints a rather worrying picture of the Luxor hot-air balloon industry the crashes in 2007 2008 and several in 2009 during this period There was little consideration for safety with as many as 50 balloons flying in the area around Luxor at once 2009 was the changing year for the industry where over a period of just a few months Three different balloons were crash one of which included colliding with a telephone pole because of this early morning flights were suspended for six months in which pilots were retrained and a setting up of an airport for balloons in which take-offs and landings were Controlled could be created and this came along with a limit of eight simultaneous flights at once However, these rules and regulations became rather hard to enforce due to as a BBC article states Since the 2011 revolution that toppled president Hussaini Mubarak The rule of law is not being respected in many aspects of Egyptian life So it has been difficult for the tourism ministry to impose its authority on sites like this as such safety Instance would continue to occur or be it in lower numbers One would occur in 2011 which is operated by the company sky cruise aboard their ultra magic in 245 With a registration number of SU 283 now remember that for later on in the video But quickly let's look at how hot-air balloons work because well, I'm rather interested in looking it up Okay, so hot-air balloons work on the concept that hot-air rises a balloon harnesses this via A thing called a burner this heats up the air within the balloon also known as the envelope. This is the fabric bag Made of a light nylon It also has an opening at one end called the mouth the envelope has some vents placed throughout it for example at the top and the sides This allows the pilot to change altitude and to pivot the vehicle the burners are fed from tanks of propane Varying the burn also changes the temperature of the air in the balloon helping it to reduce or increases altitude Now steering is a bit of a dark art as they're guided mainly by the wind and as such navigation is done by the pilot Heating or calling the air within the balloon to change altitude to try and catch different air streams at different heights Now like all things used to burn there comes a risk and that is the explosive propane This needs to be plumbed in and handled carefully, which is something that can sadly be overlooked Now we know roughly how they work. Let's lead rather neatly on to the disaster The disaster so get out your bingo cards It is the early morning of the 26th of February 2013 and members of the sky cruise balloon company are preparing their ultra magic N245 For a 615 in the morning takeoff the flight this morning will be roughly an hour and promises to give a sunrise view of One of the most historically interesting places on earth there are to be 21 aboard including the flights captain Momin Murad age 30 The air balloon climbs treating all those aboard to stunning views The flight had no abnormal phenomena or weather conditions to deal with as said in this Daily Mail article Murad radios the ground crew to let them know that he has selected a landing zone a sugarcane field a few miles away from their takeoff spot During the flight he had been rather radio silent not communicating with air traffic control This was breaking of the rules which were set after the disaster this year of 2009 Just before 7 a.m. The balloon was above the selected landing area The drop line was deployed below to attend member ground crew team waiting the balloon is just a few feet from the ground But those aboard are far from safe a fire suddenly breaks out The drop line is slipped and the air balloon Begins to ascend in the initial burst the pilot was severely burnt He lost control and fell out of the basket ground crew tried to hold on to the drop line But it wasn't helping bring back the balloon to earth as the balloon dramatically lifted Passengers began jumping into the sugarcane field below Witnesses on board nearby balloons looked on as the horror unfolded The balloon kept on rising as the flames lashed out around the basket at a height of around 300 meters or 980 feet there was an explosion which could be heard for a miles away The balloon basket and those aboard plunged into the ground killing everyone Within 15 minutes the first emergency service members were on site in all 19 of the 24 souls aboard would die The survivors were Britt Michael Rennie and the pilot mom in Murad 18 died on site with one other dying a few hours later in hospital Bodies littered the sugarcane field due to all being tourists They would be repatriated to their countries of origin all balloon operations in Luxor were suspended Pending investigations into the fatal flight Murad was severely burnt Receiving injuries to his back and face Interestingly his license had only been renewed just one month before When interviewed post accidents as to whether he was aware of what the cause of the fire was He said he did not and that he hadn't noticed any issues beforehand Well with no clear cause an investigation was required which neatly leads us on to the next section of this video The investigation The Egyptian civil aviation authority would be the ones to lead the investigation Which involved pouring over the wreckage of the basket and what remained of the balloons envelope Quickly enough the lax following of communications from Murad came to light hinting towards an overall deterioration of operations across the industry Murad in interviews confirmed that he had performed the pre Departure check by himself and that he had signed it off He was arrested the source of the fire had to be from the propane system on board and Inspections on equipment hinted towards the balloons fuel hoses The history of the balloon was dug into and a common issue of these videos popped up Old equipment in their final report the Egyptian civil aviation authority would find the hose was made in 2005 And has accumulated high flight hours Sometimes under adverse conditions This service life and conditions increased the likelihood that the hose experienced weaknesses Slash defects that could have contributed to the gas leak They also found that some of the ground crew released the ground line in order to attend to the pilot So that the remaining crew could not keep the balloon near the ground Murad claimed Checking the hose would have been the responsibility of the maintenance engineer at the balloon storage facility And that the checks that he was responsible for were only visual and not mechanical He did come under scrutiny for not following the procedure for fire by switching off the burners to cut off the flow of fuel The pilot was criminally charged, but I can't seem to find out any more information So if you know anything, please let me know in the comments below Balloon flights would continue after a month of shutdown. The suspension of services had kind of Understandably being met with anger from other operators in the tourist industry. So it's scale time I'm going to give it a 4 and here's what I've got for the bingo card. Do you agree? This is a plaintiff for production All videos in the channel created commons actuation share like license plaintiff videos produced by me John in the currently Mild corner of southern London, UK. I have a second YouTube channel as well as well as an Instagram and Twitter or x whatever you want to call it and I'd like to say a lovely warm Thank you to my patreon and YouTube members who help financially support this channel as well as the recipe for tuning in every week To watch my videos and I was there to say is thank you for watching and Mr. Music plays out, please