Today Egyptians woke up today on a disaster in Luxor , a hot air balloon crashed today killing 19 passengers including 18 tourists and 1 Egyptian worker. The hot air balloon caught fire up in the sky and crashed in to a sugar cane field in Luxor. It exploded from 1,000ft (300 metres) up in the sky , it is completely horrifying. I am really sorry.
What is really horrifying that people in other balloons filmed and took photos for the whole tragedy.
Al Jazeera Mubshar Misr got a footage for the balloon and it was scary.
Photographer Christopher Michel was in another balloon and saw the tragedy , even tweeted it.
I do not know which balloon it was.
The photos on the wires are extremely sad especially when journalists spoke in the media about the smell of the burned flash. Here are photos taken by Haithem Tabei from AFP
My deepest condolences to the families of those 18 tourists and the family of that worker.
It is a huge disaster by all measures. The photos from the site are incredibly sad when you think how scary it is to face death up in the sky and pieces were collected from debris.
Now for those who do not how the passengers were standing in the balloon or its size , here is photo by Christopher Michel for another balloon.
It is extremely terrifying and honestly I wish to see those who are responsible for this tragedy punished. Yes hot air balloons look beautiful and so on especially in Luxor but I fully agree the decision to suspend their activity until final notice.
Of course the people of Luxor are more than sad because they know that this is the end of a very poor touristic season. Already the city is suffering a lot and many of the people now who work in tourism are nearly jobless cursing whatever happening in Cairo. Today was like a disaster for them. By the way Luxor is suffering from a terrible fuel crisis.
A man told AFP reporter Haithem El Tabei to deliver a message to the people back in Cairo and to the government in particular :
It is like every month a disaster happens and people get killed. Personally I hate balloons.
What is really horrifying that people in other balloons filmed and took photos for the whole tragedy.
Al Jazeera Mubshar Misr got a footage for the balloon and it was scary.
Exclusive for Al Jazeera Mubshar Misr
Balloon crash in Luxor of the balloon behind mine.Heard the explosion and saw smoke.19 dead.#luxorMichel took some photos for the balloons including the unfortunate one today.
— christopher michel (@chrismichel) February 26, 2013
I do not know which balloon it was.
The photos on the wires are extremely sad especially when journalists spoke in the media about the smell of the burned flash. Here are photos taken by Haithem Tabei from AFP
It is a huge disaster by all measures. The photos from the site are incredibly sad when you think how scary it is to face death up in the sky and pieces were collected from debris.
 |
| From AFP |
Now for those who do not how the passengers were standing in the balloon or its size , here is photo by Christopher Michel for another balloon.
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| The balloon cabin by Chris Michel |
It is extremely terrifying and honestly I wish to see those who are responsible for this tragedy punished. Yes hot air balloons look beautiful and so on especially in Luxor but I fully agree the decision to suspend their activity until final notice.
Of course the people of Luxor are more than sad because they know that this is the end of a very poor touristic season. Already the city is suffering a lot and many of the people now who work in tourism are nearly jobless cursing whatever happening in Cairo. Today was like a disaster for them. By the way Luxor is suffering from a terrible fuel crisis.
A man told AFP reporter Haithem El Tabei to deliver a message to the people back in Cairo and to the government in particular :
We are sooooo tiredEgyptians are already saying that these are the last 18 tourists in our country !!
It is like every month a disaster happens and people get killed. Personally I hate balloons.
This is really a disaster to the tourism industry in Egypt and as if the tourism industry needs more bad news
ReplyDeleteBut again not a single word of apology to the families of those that died unnecessarily from CLUELESS Morsi and a promise that such accident would not happen again
Oh I forgot if it is up to him and el-ikhwan the pharaonic treasures of Egypt are "pagan" and they are not important
I'm confused about why there were any tourists in Egypt to be riding these balloons, anyway. They didn't hear about the western women being gang raped in public? Or are these all men who left their families home when they went on leisure travel?
DeleteWeird. Hopefully, Zeinobia is right and this will be the end of Egyptian tourism once and for all.
that has to be the stupidest most misinformed judgemental post I have read this week!! Shame on you using this opportunity as a way to have another stab at Morsi. Shame on you!
DeleteThe poor Egyptians in tourism are suffering more than most by the daily protests of the opposition.
DeleteIt's time for Egyptians to wake up and demand an end to the protests and sits in that are crippling any kind of recovery.
NO ONE will invest OR VISIT if they see opposition thugs out in the streets throwing molotovs and causing utter chaos every day here.
Foreigners cannot even renew their passport visas or residence visas at Mugamma for they are terrified of being attacked by these mindless thugs in these protests of the NSF.
The NSF are pulling Egypt apart piece by piece.
Bloggers and activists are now starting to realise the damage their constant misreporting and biased constantly derogatory posts and activity, the daily anti Morsi rhetoric which we and the tourists are now totally tired of hearing them whine about, is doing to destroy the little that is left after 2 years of almost constant rebellious anarchy in the streets. Mubarak was right. Mohammed Ali was right. All invaders were right. Egyptians need to be beaten with sticks to stop them destroying Egypt. The Interior Ministry needs to start cracking down on them hard now before there is nothing left of Egypt.
God help the poor tourists who died here in this tragedy. The poor suffering tourism of Luxor has enough problems with the protesters scaring the tourists away and depriving them of their livelihood. My heart goes out to all the poor in Luxor who are desperate to attract tourists in the midst of the mindless thugs out blocking roads and having sit ins. Utter selfish thuggery is what it is. God help Morsi too. How can anyone govern such a stupid irresponsible selfish nation :( God himself would have to perform a miracle.
Again we have our lovely government and the president to blame for the fact that no one will invest or visit!!! Because they are not doing anything to deal with the crippling Egyptian economy... So please stop blaming the opposition (which is of such value to a country, especially Egypt as she never knew rule by the will of people in her history)... Can you imagine what would happen if we would leave Morsi to do whatever he wants while we are sitting in front of the TV not protesting against it?? Already is he not listening to anything or anyone to improve Egypt. Not the opposition, not the IMF just the MB itself. Enough really
DeleteApart from this ongoing tragedy, it is absolutely horrific what happened in Luxor. I wish the families and the people of Luxor a lot of strength.
And where is our leader Morsi in all of this? Or did I actually miss his reaction to the tragic event????
Anonymous: NO ONE will invest OR VISIT if they see opposition thugs...
DeleteNO ONE SHOULD! And it has nothing to do with Morsi or "opposition thugs", it's got to do with the despicable way Egyptians treat foreign guests in their country. Egyptians deserve to live in a shithole failed state. Do they not? Can anyone deny it with a straight face?
The "Extremely scary" AFP photo is of a balloon in Canada that crashed in 2007. There is something called Google Images Find by Image search that would helpful to you in finding these fakes.
ReplyDeleteThanks for telling me , I removed the photo
DeleteThis is what you wrote
ReplyDelete>that has to be the stupidest most misinformed
Misinformed? really? innocent tourists died and Morsi is silent about this disaster? so where is the misinformation here you tell me? why the delusions you tell me
Why the slogans but no substance?
>judgemental post I have read this week!!
So you tell us:
1. Is this horrible accident good or bad for the tourist industry in Egypt an industry that employs many Egyptians? a yes or no will do
2. Did clueless Morsi address it or even acknowledge this disaster? A yes or no answer would do and where does he hide when many poor Egyptians were killed in railroad accidents?
3. Are the great monuments of Egypt "pagan" and el-ikhwan wa el-salafiyeen would rather see them gone or not? a yes or no answer will do
Now you tell me how do you explain this "judgmental" thing?
>Shame on you
Shame on he/she who has no regard for an industry that employs many Egyptians and has no regard for the death of innocent people so the shame is on you and on the one in charge and that is CLUELESS Morsi
> using this opportunity as a way to have another stab at Morsi.
Sure he is in charge right? then he should have known that he will be blamed and if he does not like it then I tell him IRHAL and good riddnace
>Shame on you!
Oh I see you cannot prove me wrong right?
You wrote
ReplyDelete>the daily anti Morsi rhetoric which we and the tourists are now totally tired of hearing them whine about,
So let me see:
1. Morsi did not even acknowledge this horrible disaster and that is what I wrote right?
2. Morsi did not apologize to the families of the victims or tell the whole world that this will not happen again and that Egypt is open to tourism and this is what I wrote right?
3. Morsi is in charge and any such disaster should be addressed by him not no ifs and no buts! Right?
So you tell me is this the truth of is this rhetoric unless you really have no clue what the words rhetoric v. truth really mean
> is doing to destroy the little that is left after 2 years of almost constant rebellious anarchy in the streets.
So blaming Morsi for being clueless and insensitive about the death of these tourists and therefore the tourist industry has something to do with "rebellious anarchy"? are you that clueless?
>Mubarak was right. Mohammed Ali was right. All invaders were right. Egyptians need to be beaten with sticks to stop them destroying Egypt.
So let me be sure that I understand what you wrote: you are saying that Egyptians should be beaten as they are asking for it? How cruel
And how would you have felt if one family member of your, who was exercising his god given right to protest, is beaten or even killed by the thugs el-ikhwangiyya
And how would you feel if one family member was one of the victims of this disaster in Luxor you tell me
But again to remain silent at times is the easy way out but this means that you allowed evil to win
> The Interior Ministry needs to start cracking down on them hard now before there is nothing left of Egypt.
Oh did you see the Hamada videos and would you like it this way? Now you tell me how would you have felt watching his suffering if he was a family member?
If you remain silent in the face of evil then you deserve what happens to you as when the likes of Hamada are gone and no one is defending them you will be next on their agenda
It is reported now in German newspapers that the pilot of the balloon jumped from it rather than extinguishing the fire that had started. Then the gas tank exploded and the balloon shot 400m up.
ReplyDeleteThe brutal truth is, that there are many balloon accidents are happening in Luxor and the greedy operators cover that up and do nothing about training their staff or else.
Of course Morsi should have offered condolences - the Minister of Tourism did. But Morsi is MB and the Minister is not. Tourists are infidels - too bad for them.
If you remain silent in the face of evil then you deserve what happens to you...
ReplyDeleteThat's my line. This blogger, Zeinobia, deserves Egypt as it is and as it will be and has no right to criticize outsiders for causing Egyptians to behave like Egyptians, nor to demand help from outsiders to save Egyptians from the fate they so richly deserve.
And that goes for the vast majority of other Egyptians, as well.
Right now the evil in Egypt is the very system of Morsi, MB and islamisation of Egypt. And the protesters are protesting exactly because of your quote and Morsi and his system are keeping silent exactly as it states in your quote!!!!
DeleteWe made the huge mistake to vote for the MB which was predictable unfortunately because Egypt is a baby when it comes to democracy and the step to choose for anything other then MB was too big 2 years ago (although Sabahi at nr 3 said something but it was not enough) and will be for the coming years.
BUT Egyptians deserve more then the crap hole they are in now and it will take TIME and good MANAGEMENT.. The latter is never going to be under the current REGIME.. God help the Egyptians the coming years .. Morsi and co are helpless anyways!!