Tips on how to choose a hot air balloon company

As authorities investigate a hot air balloon crash that killed 16 people in Texas, experienced pilots say consumers should check out companies and pilots offering hot air balloon rides before taking to the air. Dean Carlton, president of the Balloon Federation of America, said there are approximately 200 full-time balloon tour operators in the United States, as well as hundreds of smaller firms.

Virgin Galactic to Resume Flights

Richard Branson's space-tourism company said it has received federal approval to resume testing its rocket plane following a 2014 fatal test flight and, if those flights go smoothly, to eventually start carrying passengers to the edge of space. Virgin Galactic LLC on Monday announced the authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration came some 20 months after pilot error resulted in a high-profile crash that rocked the company and raised questions about the future of commercial ventures in space.

The Latest: Texas balloon company suspends operations

Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides has suspended operations after a gondola hit a high-powered transmission line Saturday in Lockhart, Texas and caught fire, killing all 16 passengers. The crash "has taken from us our owner and chief pilot, Skip Nichols, as well as 15 passengers, all of whom saw what was planned to be a special day turn into an unspeakable tragedy," Sarah Nichols, Skip Nichols' mother and the company's operations manager, wrote on Facebook late Sunday.

‘He couldn’t drive a car but he could pilot a hot-air balloon’:…

The hot air balloon hit power lines and caught fire before crashing to the ground in Lockhart, Texas, on Saturday morning Pilot Alfred 'Skip' Nichols, 49, had been charged with drunk driving four times, was banned from driving a car and had been to prison twice He was convicted of a drug crime in 2000 and spent about a year and a half in prison before being paroled He was returned to prison in April 2010 after his parole was revoked because of his drunken driving conviction that year Consumers were warned three times about his previous balloon firm based in St Louis and complaints had been made against his new company - Heart of Texas Victims include a woman and her mom celebrating Mother's Day and a newlywed couple, who shared photos from the balloon before the crash The hot air balloon owner who crashed in Texas and killed all 16 people aboard had been arrested for drunken driving four ... (more)

Officials: No apparent survivors in Texas balloon crash

Investigators surround the scene in a field near Lockhart, Texas where a hot air balloon carrying at least 16 people collided with power lines Saturday, July 30, 2016, causing what authorities described as a "significant loss of life." Investigators surround the scene in a field near Lockhart, Texas where a hot air balloon carrying at least 16 people collided with power lines Saturday, July 30, 2016, causing what authorities described as a "significant loss of life."

Debris of the balloon is seen in a field near Lockhart, Texas. Photo: Xinhua

'It went up like a big fireball': witness heard popping sounds before hot air balloon crashed near power lines in Texas killing 16 The accident on a rural field in central Texas occurred about three years after 19 people, including nine Hongkongers, were killed in a hot-air balloon crash in Luxor, Egypt A hot air balloon burst into flames over central Texas after apparently striking power lines and plunged into a field, killing all 16 people aboard in one of the deadliest such accidents on record, police and eyewitnesses said. The Federal Aviation Administration said the fiery crash occurred at about 7:40 a.m. Saturday near Lockhart, a town about 50km south of Austin, the Texas capital.

Multiple deaths in Texas hot air balloon crash

LOCKHART, Texas -- A hot air balloon carrying at least 16 people caught on fire and crashed in Central Texas on Saturday, causing what authorities described as a "significant loss of life." Erik Grosof with the National Transportation Safety Board would not provide an exact number of how many people died.

Crews find wreckage of small medical plane; 2 confirmed dead

Authorities found the wreckage of a small medical transport plane with four people aboard and confirmed at least two deaths Friday after the pilot reported smoke filling the cockpit and a search started across a densely forested mountain range in Northern California. The Piper PA31 was carrying a flight nurse, a transport medic and a patient about 360 miles from Crescent City, near the Oregon border, to Oakland when the pilot declared an emergency around 1 a.m. The Humboldt County Sheriff's Office, which led the pursuit on the ground, did not immediately release information about the fates of the other two people aboard.

FAA safety inspectors unable to make surprise inspections

" U.S. safety inspectors are generally unable to conduct unannounced inspections of foreign repair stations where most airlines send their planes for major repair work, and sometimes must cancel inspections for lack of funds, according to a government watchdog. Federal Aviation Administration inspectors are required to give countries where the repairs stations are located advance notice of their plans, and often notice to the repair stations and the country's aviation safety agency as well, according to a report released Thursday by the Government Accountability Office.