Authorities are searching for two people that went missing after a fire broke out in a hot air balloon as it was flying over Virginia, causing the balloon to crash into the countryside, CNN reported.
A total of three people were aboard the hot air balloon when it came into contact with power lines, caught fire and crashed on Friday. One body has been found so far. Officials say the search effort is now a recovery operation, CNN reported.
Witnesses say they saw the fiery balloon floating in the air with the passengers screaming for help.
"They were just screaming for anybody to help them. 'Help me, help me, sweet Jesus, help, I'm going to die. Oh my God, I'm going to die,' " Carrie Hager-Bradley told WWBT.
Hager-Bradley said she saw someone fall out of the balloon to the ground.
Neither the balloon nor its basket has been found in the crash area 25 miles north of Richmond. State troopers searched the countryside all night with no success at recovering any of the passengers, Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corrine Geller told CNN.
Geller said a plan to shift to an aerial search was delayed due to an incoming storm.
The balloon was one of 20 that were participating in the Mid-Atlantic Balloon Festival at Meadow Event Park in Caroline County on Friday.
The festival was canceled after the deadly crash.
"The Mid-Atlantic Balloon Festival regrets that there was a safety incident involving one of the balloons participating on the evening of May 9," the festival's organizers said in a statement obtained by WWBT.
The pilot and two passengers went missing.
When the fire broke out the pilot opened the top of the balloon to let the air out to stop it from going higher, Geller told CNN. But the gondola and the balloon separated while the balloon kept going.
