A scorching air balloon caught hearth and tumbled from the sky on Saturday in Brazil ’s southern state of Santa Catarina, killing eight individuals, firefighters stated.
Footage shared by native information outlet G1 confirmed billows of smoke coming from the balloon in flames because it hurtled towards the bottom within the municipality of Praia Grande.
On a video on social media, two individuals could be seen falling by means of the air as the hearth unfold onboard the plane.
Three individuals died hugging one another, stated Ulisses Gabriel, chief of Santa Catarina’s civil police power, on X. “It hurts the soul.”
13 individuals survived and had been taken to hospitals, Santa Catarina’s army hearth brigade stated, including that 21 individuals had been on board together with the pilot.
“We’re in mourning. A tragedy has occurred. We’ll see the way it unfolds, what occurred, why it occurred. However the necessary factor now could be for the state construction to do what it could,” Gov. Jorginho Mello stated in a video on X.
Mello stated he has requested authorities to go to the municipality “to do as a lot as doable to rescue, to assist, to take to hospital, to consolation the households.”
Emergency companies function on the space the place a scorching air balloon crashed, leaving at the least 8 useless in Santa Catarina, Brazil on June 21, 2025.
CBMSC/ Brazil / Handout/Anadolu by way of Getty Photos
“In line with the pilot, who is likely one of the survivors, a fireplace began contained in the basket after which he started to decrease the balloon. When the balloon was very near the bottom, he ordered individuals to leap out of the basket,” Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper quoted Praia Grande head police officer Tiago Luiz Lemos as saying.
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“A few of them didn’t handle to leap. The fireplace elevated and the balloon ended up falling,” Lemos added.
G1 reported that the balloon’s anticipated flight time was 45 minutes, with the balloon reaching 1000 meters, and price 550 reais (round C$137) per passenger.
Praia Grande is a typical vacation spot for warm air ballooning, a well-liked exercise in some components of Brazil’s south throughout June festivities that commemorate Catholic saints equivalent to St. John, whose feast day is on June 24.
Final Sunday, a balloon got here down in Sao Paulo state, killing a 27-year-old girl and injuring 11 different individuals, G1 reported.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
