What to Know
A family visiting Nevada were among several people who were injured in a hot air balloon accident. The accident, which happened when the basket tipped while still hovering over the ground before landing, left one person in critical condition, while others were dealing with second and third-degree burns and other injuries. Those present said there was fire as they tried to escape. In addition to the family, there were other people who were part of different tours riding together in the balloon. Currently, the crash is being investigated, but the company who offered the tour hasn’t spoken out about the incident.
The crash happened in the early morning hours.
Authorities first received a report of the accident around 6:30 a.m. on June 18, 2026, the Nye County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement to People. Someone texted 911 “saying that there had been a hot air balloon crash in the Stewart Valley dry lake west of Pahrump,” which is just outside Vegas.
According to officials, there were 10 people on board.
A preliminary report from the Federal Aviation Administration said the hot air balloon was landing when it was hit by “a gust of wind” and bounced on the ground. When deputies arrived on the scene, they met with crew from the balloon company.
The FAA is still investigating the crash.
One of the families spoke out about the experience.
Brant Kairit and his family were visiting Nevada from Mississippi, he told local news outlet KVVU. They were looking for fun things to do during their trip, leading them to the encounter.
“One of them that seemed to be really fun was just be a hot air balloon ride. Nobody in our family had ever ridden before,” he explained.
According to Kairit, the company picked them that morning and drove to Pahrump for the ride. “Everything was just wonderful. It was like early. We drove to Pahrump in the dark. They set it up. We flew for 45 minutes it was beautiful,” he said.
It wasn’t until the final minutes of the trip that things began to go wrong.
“It was a wonderful experience until the last 30 seconds. In the last 30 seconds we were to land and hit the ground,” he said.
The Sheriff’s Office said they made a hard landing.
“The baskets are shaped like a figure 8 rectangular, so we landed and went up in the air for a little bit, 20, 30 feet, and it tipped over on its side with the smaller rectangular part on the ground,” Kairit said.
He said that the basket was four feet on the ground and 12 feet in the air on the other side. His family was on the side that was up in their air.
“When I was 10 foot in the air and it was about to roll over on my head, that’s when I was like, yeah, this ain’t going to be good,” he said, adding that the basket tipped and there was a fire.
The family “managed to get out under” the basket and started “stomping out the fire.” He said his wife had the “most” injuries and was “bleeding pretty well.” He said that once he was able to get out, “there was smoke and fire and blood everywhere,” The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
They then got her into a van to take her to the hospital.
The Nye County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 text message that morning reporting the crash, KLAS reported. According to the person who sent the text, there was practically no cell phone reception in the area.
Emergency crews reported to the remote location. There they found several passengers with a variety of injuries, including burns, head injuries, and other kinds of trauma. Nye County Sheriff Joe McGill gave an additional description of the scene.
“The occupants of the basket all fell on top of each other, and also during a rolling or bumping the ground or whatever, the gas actuator was bumped, which caused the gas to ignite,” he told the outlet.
“They come down all the time. They fly out here almost daily, but this is the first time I can recall having injuries like this.”
