A man has died after a hot air balloon 'fell to the ground', police have said.
West Mercia Police said on Sunday (25 June) they received a call that a hot air balloon had deflated and fallen onto the ground in a field near Holt Fleet Road in Ombersley, Worcestershire at 06:23 BST.
A hot air balloon festival was said to have been taking place seven miles away from the scene, in Worcester, on Friday and Saturday.
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Emergency services arrived at the scene to find that a man in his 20s was pronounced dead by paramedics.
Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB), who investigates civil aircraft accidents, has confirmed it's investigating the incident.
An AAIB spokesperson said: "We have a team on site and are beginning our investigation."
In a statement, West Mercia Police told LADbible: "At 6.20am this morning (June 25) police received a call a hot air balloon had deflated and fallen to the ground near the A449 at Ombersley.
"The balloon fell to the ground in a field off Holt Fleet Road, near Ombersley Court.
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"Emergency services attended and unfortunately a man was pronounced dead by paramedics.
"The Air Accident Investigation Branch will now carry out an investigation."
A spokesperson for Hereford and Worcester Fire Service added: "We went out to an incident involving a hot air balloon in Ombersley on the Holt Fleet Road.
"We had a call at 6.23am, crews from Worcester, Droitwich, Wyre Forest, Evesham and Bromsgrove.
"We have left the scene now, but we have left it to the police."
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According to the UK Civil Aviation Authority, there were 10 hot air balloon accidents in the UK during 2014-2018.
In 2021, five people were killed in a hot air balloon crash in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Police said the basket detached from the balloon and crashed early on 6 June, 2021, in turn cutting off power to more than 13,000 people in the area.
Two men - including the pilot - and two women died in the crash, while a fifth person was taken to hospital in critical condition but later passed away.
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Witnesses on social media described seeing the hot air balloon falling from the sky without its basket after losing power, with one person tweeting a video of what they saw from their window.
"Power went out first," they wrote.
"Looked out my window saw it falling with no basket. Horrible."
Topics: UK News
Anish Vij