Emergency services were sent to the scene of the accident in the Bucklige Welt region, an area known for its hilly landscape, about 53 miles (86 kilometers) south of the capital Vienna. Two passengers were seriously injured and found with two other injured people in the rural town of Untereck. Five other passengers were found with minor injuries about three miles away near the Stang. The cause of the crash remains unclear at this time. The two people who were seriously injured were airlifted to local hospitals. According to Austrian newspaper The Kurier, the crash happened as the balloon was about to land in a meadow. It is believed to have descended too quickly and bounced off the ground – ejecting four people, including the pilot and co-pilot. The four crawled together for a few meters before the aircraft took off again – still carrying the five remaining passengers. The pilot is said to have instructed passengers in the sky on how to make an emergency landing by phone, according to the newspaper, before the balloon eventually came to rest in a forest. In June last year, five people died when a hot air balloon was blown onto power lines by a gust of wind in New Mexico, US. The pilot and three passengers were pronounced dead at the scene of the tragedy. A fifth person died after being rushed to hospital with serious injuries. In Germany, three people died and a child was injured when a plane collided with a hot air balloon and then crashed into an apartment building in the town of Wesel, 35 miles north of Düsseldorf, in July 2020.
