VERRENS-ARVEY, France — A hot-air balloon exploded after hitting a power line near a French Alpine village, killing all six people on board as the pilot's wife watched from the ground.
The passengers, all residents of the area, were members of two families out for a Sunday morning pleasure ride with the pilot, an experienced balloonist, said Gilbert Lafaille, a prosecutor for the eastern French town of Albertville.
The balloon took off from Albertville, site of the 1992 Winter Olympics, and collided with a 20,000-volt power line as it began its descent above the village of Verrens-Arvey, said Laurent Moiron, a fire captain for a regional emergency squad.
Investigators were trying to determine if contact with the power line caused the fire. Moiron said some witnesses reported seeing flames shooting from the balloon before it hit the power line about 30 feet from the ground.
"In either case, the basket of the hot-air balloon caught fire, causing the balloon to resume its climb," Moiron said.
Two passengers died after jumping to escape the flames, Lafaille said.
"People were screaming," a witness, Daniel Burgat, told LCI television. "All of a sudden I saw a body fall, and then another."
As the balloon continued its ascent, propelled by the heat from the flames, gas tanks inside the balloon ignited and caused an explosion.
"I saw flames, black smoke, then I heard a big explosion," a farmer who saw the accident was quoted as saying by RTL radio.
The force of the explosion propelled two other passengers out of the balloon. Their bodies were found just over a mile from the power line, Lafaille said.
The balloon crashed in a grassy field behind a church in the town of Clery, about three miles from Albertville. The severely burned bodies of the pilot, Roger Fugier, and one remaining passenger were found on board.
Fugier, 64, who frequently took tourists and residents on balloon rides, was an accomplished pilot who had crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and the Pyrenees in hot-air balloons, Lafaille said.
Fugier's wife, who was on the ground and watched the balloon catch fire, placed the initial call to emergency services from her mobile phone. She was in a state of shock and taken to a trauma center at the Albertville hospital.
Police had initially said that a young child was among the victims but later determined that the youngest on board was a woman in her 20s. She was accompanied by her parents. A 39-year-old bank manager and his 69-year-old mother were the other passengers.