Pilot in hot-air balloon accident was medicated

Bad weather warnings were also ignored prior to accident

WASHINGTON — The pilot of a hot air balloon that crashed in Texas in July, killing 16 people, was taking medications that should have precluded him from flying, medical experts testified at a federal hearing on Friday.

Experts also testified that Alfred “Skip” Nichols, who was killed along with 15 passengers, went up in the balloon despite knowing that the weather wasn’t good.

The six-hour hearing is part of the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into the July 30 accident in which the balloon hit hightension power lines before crashing into a pasture near Lockhart, about 60 miles northeast of San Antonio.

Nichols suffered from high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, diabetes, depression, attention deficit disorder, insomnia, fibromyalgia and chronic back pain, according to an NTSB report presented at the hearing. He was prescribed at least 10 different drugs for his ailments, including insulin and oxycodone. Medical experts told NTSB officials that some of the medications Nichols was taking, including oxycodone, would have disqualified him from flying because they would have affected his ability to think and make decisions.

It’s not clear whether the 49-year-old pilot was impaired during the early morning flight. A final NTSB report won’t be issued until early next year.

Nichols flew on a day when the cloud ceiling was 700 feet and the forecast didn’t call for the sky to clear.

“When this accident pilot received a weather briefing, the weather briefer said, ‘Yeah, those clouds may be a problem for you. Don’t know how long you plan to stay, but ... ’ and then the pilot replied, ‘Well, we just fly in between them. We find a hole and we go,’” said NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt.

Several experts testified that they would not have flown in that weather.

Nichols had at least four convictions for drunken driving.