From: Steve Griffin >

Date: 2 October 2010 18:30:09 GMT+01:00

To: 'Nigel Pogmore' >

Subject: FW: News from the Serengeti

Nigel,

Not sure how much you have found out about the prang in the Serengeti. This is from a guy that I didn’t know was working there.

Steve

Subject: Dreadful Accident

Hi Steve

There was a serious accident yesterday here with 2 dead and 8 injured someseriously. It was windy at launch site and although other balloon took off, I stayed on ground. Glad I did, they could not get down before mountains and were caught in mountain waves. Balloon hit large tree at speed causing serious injuries to pax, carried on over another mountain range then ejected 2 pax and P1/US on final hard landing. Vugly. I spend afternoon loading seriously injured pax on to medivac

flight to Wilson. Pilot is canadian and physically OK but a mess.

Serengeti hot air balloon crash

Two More Passengers Killed

Eight seriously injured

Survivors account.

At 4.30 AM we were picked up at our lodge and we drove to the location, where the balloon would take off. Two balloons were being prepared, and we were taken to the nearest balloon.

We were told that it was not sure, that we would go up in the balloon, because of the strong wind. Shortly after this, we were told to climb in to the basket, and we would go on the balloon trip after all. We were instructed about take off, and we climbed in to the balloon, while it was lying on the ground. During take-off, we had to lie down, holding on to the ropes, with our luggage by our feet. We were informed, that the Captain and his assistant would instruct us about the landing, when the balloon was up in the air.

After a rough start, where the balloon suddenly crashed down with some hard and unpleasant bumps, the balloon finally tokes off. After a while I asked Frank 'the Captain' where the other balloon was. He was not clear in his answer, and mumbled something about that the balloon was behind some clouds, and that was why I could not see it. Afterwards we were told, that the other balloon never toke off, after they had seen our dramatic take off.

After 45 minuets the Captain decided, that it was time too land the balloon and started to look for a suitable landing site. The wind was stronger now, with strong cross wind by the ground. Always the Captain had to tell his assistant what to do. We were shortly told to sit down in the basket, hold one to the ropes and duck our heads. All of a sudden the wind took us and through us into the trees. It was very wild and sounded fiercely, and my husband XXXXX was badly injured. He came with a stifled sound, and he looked at me, and said my name 'x xxxxx"I can't breathe.'

He had tremendous pain in his chest and had to stand up, because he could not lie down. He said that it felt as if all his ribs were broken and had gone lose inside off him. Despite his pain, he was very concerned about me, and asked how I was doing. A branch had hid me in the back several times, and it had broken the 12 if thoracic vertebra, which gave me trouble breathing. I could not use my legs, so I used my arms to get to xxxxx, so that I could hold him in my arms. All we could do was to tell each other, what a great life we have had together.

We then realized, that the balloon had not landed, it was still up in the air. The Captains assistant jumped to the other side off the basket to help Harvey and his fiancé, who were hurt and lied on the flour. Frank 'the Captain' then started shouting 'mayday mayday' and gave coordinates over the radio. He told us to sit down in the basket, with our heads down. He also shouted ' this is going to be a tuff landing'.

XXXX and I tried to sit down, but had trouble holding on to the ropes, because we were in to much pain. We hold on to the basket with one hand and we then hold each others hand. 'Frank' the Captain could not control the landing on his own. He jumped up on to the side of the basket and pulled in the ropes with all his strength, trying to get the air out off the balloon. We bumped to the ground several times and then I lost consciousness.

When I woke up, I was lying on my stomach on the ground. I could not move and my face was filled with dirt and sand. I was lying in the burning sun and I was very thirsty, but we only had one bottle of water and there were only a couple of drops of water for everyone. I could not see xxxx, but I sensed xxxx xxxx and xxxx near by. I could not bear to ask how XXXX was doing; I sensed that something was wrong. I only thought about my three children and two grandchildren, I was afraid that I would not survive. About 6 hours went by, before the help arrived. The flying doctors had located us from the air, but they could not land in the area, were we had crashed. The accident happened around 8 am and we arrived to the Nairobi hospital at 7.30 pm.

The flight from Tanzania to Kenya would not take off, before they had seen everybody's passports. This was very upsetting, because most of us did not have our luggage and we all were complete exhausted. We were supposed to have breakfast after the balloon trip, so we did not have anything to eat the whole day.

xxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxx and Harvey xxxxxx did not survive the crash. They had stayed in the same side in the basket, the side that hit the trees front one. END