Pilot in balloon crash took drugs
Oxycontin part of cocktail consumed before fatal flight
The pilot of a hot-air balloon that crashed last summer in Texas, killing himself and 15 sightseeing passengers, had taken a cocktail of prohibited drugs before liftoff including the opiate painkiller oxycodone, according to documents.
Alfred “Skip” Nichols was able to continue flying people for hire in spite of being convicted five times for driving while intoxicated and three times for drug offenses. The incident revealed lax regulations on balloon operators and a regulatory loophole that made it difficult to take enforcement action against him, according to documents prepared for a National Transportation Safety Board hearing.
The hot-air balloon controlled by Nichols, 49, struck high-power lines near Lockhart, Texas, on July 30 and plunged to the ground, bursting into flames and killing all aboard. The death toll was the highest in a single U.S. aviation accident since 50 died in a 2009 commuter plane crash near Buffalo, New York.
Victims, some of whom posted photos on social media minutes before the crash, included a professor with the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research and his wife, and a mother and daughter taking the Sunday-morning flight as part of a Mother’s Day gift.
“The ultimate goal of this investigation is to learn from this tragedy so that we can keep it from happening again,” NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt said in opening remarks at Friday’s hearing.
The NTSB will examine broad safety issues raised by the accident, including why Nichols took off in spite of a report of questionable weather. It will also consider how Nichols, who had served two prison terms for drug and alcohol violations, slipped through the cracks.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates the industry, has so far declined to add tighter rules on balloon flights, in spite of an NTSB formal recommendation in 2014 to give balloon passengers “a similar level of safety oversight as passengers of air tour airplane and helicopter operations.”