Eleven dead after hot air balloon crash near Carterton, New Zealand

Eleven people are dead after a hot air balloon burst into flames and smashed to the ground near Carterton this morning.

Wairarapa District Health Board spokeswoman Jill Stringer said 11 people - all of those on board - died when the balloon came down near the Clareville showgrounds north of the Wairarapa town.

Police have cordoned off both ends of Somerset Rd, from where fire trucks and police cars can be seen at the site of the crash around 300m up the road.

An emergency centre had been set up in the town's Fire Station, Carterton Mayor Ron Mark said.

Police, fire officers and victim support were there, tending to families of the victims.

Mark said he understood those on board were a mix of locals and visitors to the Wairarapa.

It was a small community and many would have know some of those on board, he said.

A nurse who was second on the scene dodged live power lines as she ran to help two people who had tried to jump clear.

Jacqui O'Connor, 38, was holidaying at the Carterton Campground when she saw the balloon accident this morning.

She said the balloon became "like a cartoon character" as it combusted into flames and darted around the sky before crashing.

"We saw the balloon going up and then dropping and then the basket bursting into flames, then it kind of going up again," she said.

"It was almost like a cartoon character, it was just combusting. Then it had this long thin tail of smoke out the back. It was like something off the Road Runner [cartoon], it was quite freaky."

O'Connor, a nurse at Waitakere Hospital, and her friend Annette who is also a nurse, jumped into their car and rushed to the scene.

"There was just ash on one side where the balloon was, and a good 100m a way were two people."

A woman whose farm the two people who had jumped had landed on was doing CPR.

"There was live wire all over the people and the paddock.

"That's where our dangers were."

Fire crews then turned up to take over the dangerous scene.

O'Connor said she heard a woman about her age on the phone say "Mum and Dad have been in a hot air balloon accident, they've hit power lines and they're dead."

The dead couple, believed to be locals to the area, were aged in their 60s.

WAVING, THEN SCREAMS

Another witness spoke of the harrowing scene.

"The people were enjoying a nice ride and by the looks of it they clipped a power wire.

"They've clipped a power wire and tried to go up then they've sort of gone across the road then its caught fire and they come down in a hell of a hurry.

I was looking out the window watching it happen.''

Before the accident he had seen them passing overhead and waved to them.

"Then I heard the screams and looked out the window and heard it coming down. I was having my breakfast and I heard them, they sounded like screams of joy but they weren't.

"It wasn't coming from a great deal of height.

"I ran down the road to see if I could help but by that stage it was too late. it was just burned out. By the time the emergency services got there - there wasn't much of a chance.

''When we got there the farmer said a couple had jumped out and were over in the paddock.

"We went over their to investigate and see if they could help. They continued doing CPR on them until the right people arrived.''

David McKinlay, who lives on the north eastern side of Carterton, has described 10 metre flames bursting from the balloon before it smashed to the ground.

"I was watering the garden and heard a noise, the noise of the gas to raise the balloon. I looked over and I couldn't believe it - one side of the basket was on fire.

"It was just above the trees when I first saw it ... it looked like he tried to raise it a bit higher ... all of a sudden there was just 10 metres of flames.

"It was like a rocket coming down; it was just unbelievable."

McKinlay, who said it was common for balloons to take off from Somerset Rd, likened what he'd seen to a flaming rocket launching.

It believed the balloon was owned by Lance Hopping, of Ballooning NZ. It is not known if he was on board the flight.

Balloons over Wairarapa organiser Jonathan Hooker said Hopping was the event's safety manager.

"He was very safety conscious, a very professional pilot," Hooker said.

"It's obviously tragic for balloonists and balloons everywhere.

"It's a very tight knit community. All the balloonists know each other."

Farmer Graeme Fisher, who lives about 500m from the crash site, said he had been chopping firewood this morning when he heard a bang.

"I heard the siren going up in town, they must have got on that pretty quick. I just saw the black smoke.''

The weather in the area had been clear and still, Fisher said.

Police, fire, ambulance are at the scene.

A large media contingent has gathered an the edge of State Highway 2 but little of the accident is visible from the roadside.

Transport Accident Investigation Commission communications manager Peter Northcote said the Commission had opened an inquiry into the crash.

An investigation team was being assembled with the first two of up to four investigators due on the scene about midday.

The Commission conducts safety focused investigations with the aim of being able to explain the causes of an accident, so that lessons and recommendations can be drawn in order to help reduce the likelihood of a similar event in the future.

- Fairfax NZ News