The wind blew them away, but the mist crashed them. Contrary to what was initially maintained by the Turkish authorities, it was the zero visibility that caused the balloon ride of a group of Catalan tourists to end in tragedy on Tuesday morning. Two women, Dolors and Cristina, died from the impact, while of the five who were injured, two remain hospitalized. The most serious, now stable, counts since this morning with the presence of her family in the Nevsehir hospital.
The group, made up of twenty-two women from Lloret de Mar -including the organizer of the Tastets de Món travel agency- has decided not to make any statements about the confusing circumstances of the accident in the lunar landscape of Cappadocia. In a statement issued this afternoon to the media and which they say will be the last, the survivors limit themselves to insisting that "each and every one of us follows the safety regulations explained by the company at the beginning of the trip at all times."
An affirmation that comes to the fore of the statements of one of the managers of the company -which would have a single balloon, associated with the Yunak Evleri hotel in Ürgün- according to which the women who were ejected by the impact with the ground "had not adopted the descending position.
Now we know, from relatives of the injured, that more than a descent it was a real roller coaster, after the balloon entered a thick white fog for unknown reasons. One of the survivors would have told her family that "nothing could be seen" and that both the balloon itself and the gondola were shaking very violently, causing many screams of panic.
The images confirm that the balloon could not have landed in a worse place, right where, in the middle of the moor, rock formations emerge on an inclined plane. The impact was "brutal". For some survivors, it almost crashed.
On the other hand, those affected would not have observed any indisposition in the pilot, M.M.A.K. Be that as it may, the police have arrested him and brought him to justice, according to the Anadolu agency.
A Turkish businesswoman who that same day put four hot air balloons over the sky of Cappadocia, without any problem, says she does not know the pilot, nor does she know if he is diabetic or not, as has been rumoured, but, based on the references that have come to her , "is one of the best, with two thousand flight hours". This businesswoman does not find an easy explanation for the accident, but she believes that the balloon "perhaps rose too high and an air current" -it was blowing strongly- "took it away from the tourist area and when it tried to descent it got into a fog bank ".
Until now, credit was given to the version of the company and the Turkish authorities, that a gust of wind was at the origin of the accident. Although the wind delayed the departures for half an hour, it was not a setback for the balloons that decided to leave, the vast majority of the 150-170 that do so daily.
The accident has shocked the historic center of the coastal town, where the Tastets de Món agency is located and where many of its clients live, of a certain purchasing power. The discretion has been overwhelming, although on Tuesday afternoon there was a concentration of support for the families, with a minute of silence and three days of mourning have been decreed. Those affected, from Turkey, have expressed their gratitude to the consulate and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for their support.
