ISTANBUL – A hot air balloon crashed in central Turkey on Sunday, leaving its pilot dead and 19 Indonesian tourists injured, a local official said.
In a statement, the governor’s office said the balloon was affected by a sudden change of wind.
The incident occurred as the balloon attempted a difficult landing near Gozlukuyu village in Aksaray province, when the pilot accidentally fell out of the basket and his feet became entangled in a rope, according to Aksaray Governor Mehmet Ali Kumbuzoglu.
“Unfortunately, our pilot got stuck under the basket and died,” he said, adding that the injured tourists were taken to a hospital.
Hot air balloon rides are a favored tourist attraction over central Turkey’s dramatic terrain, which features ancient churches carved into the cliffs. Among the area’s highlights are Cappadocia’s “fairy chimneys”—tall, cone-shaped rock structures formed by natural erosion over millennia, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Footage from Ilhas News Agency showed a deflated balloon with the passenger basket toppled to its side, as emergency responders attended to the injured. Authorities have launched an investigation into the incident.
State-run Anadolu Agency said another hot air balloon taking off from the same location of Ilhara Valley also made a hard landing early Sunday morning, and that 12 Indian tourists were slightly injured and taken to hospital.
Two Spanish tourists were killed in 2022 when a hot air balloon made a hard landing following a sightseeing tour of Cappadocia.
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