CEJ#5

Hailey Fuentez

Balloon tragedy may take further toll on Egypt tourism

Egypt,Luxor

Laura Bly
USA today
4:26p.m. February 26, 2013
World
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/02/26/hot-air-balloon-crash-egypt/1947963/

A snagged landing cable on a hot air balloon sparked a fire, explosion and crash Tuesday that killed 19 foreign tourists near Egypt's ancient Nile River city of Luxor.The tragedy also dealt another blow to Egypt's staggering, post-revolution tourism industry.The deaths included French, British, Belgian, Hungarian, Japanese nationals and nine tourists from Hong Kong.A couple of the people such as the pilots and two of the tourists were taken to a local hospital and one of the tourist died later due to severe injuries.

once one of my family members went to egypt as a tourist and i'm just glad it wasn't them in that balloon, the families of the deceased riders must be devastated. I can only give my empathy to them. To Egypt this has a question ing of faulty machinery or the pilots not knowing how to drive. well all in all this a tragic accident, fatal for all.It is understood that while the pilot involved in the 2011 crash no longer works for Sky Cruises, the company remained the preferred carrier for Blue Sky travel agents, and by extension Thomas Cook, whom they represent in Egypt.Representatives of Thomas Cook in Eg ypt referred press inquiries to the head office in London. But the Luxor manager of Blue Sky denied it should have changed carriers after the 2011 incident.