Pilot received the all-clear just weeks before disaster
The 28-year-old pilot of the Sky Cruise hot-air balloon that exploded over Luxor had reportedly had his licence renewed only weeks earlier. The head of the Civil Aviation Administration in Egypt, Mohammed Sherif, said at the scene of the crash that Moman Mourad's qualifications were checked in January and he had no violations.
The 28-year-old pilot of the Sky Cruise hot-air balloon that exploded over Luxor had reportedly had his licence renewed only weeks earlier.
The head of the Civil Aviation Administration in Egypt, Mohammed Sherif, said at the scene of the crash that Moman Mourad's qualifications were checked in January and he had no violations.
"Each time we renew the licence, we check up the balloon and we test the pilot," Sherif said.
Mohamed Youssef, a friend of Mourad, told the South China Morning Post yesterday that the Sky Cruise pilot had never been involved in a fatal accident before.
Mourad had been a balloon pilot for about six years, Youssef said, after graduating from a competing ballooning company called Sindbad Balloons in 2006.
Youssef, a balloon pilot since 2004, spoke to Mourad's mother when he visited the injured pilot in Luxor International Hospital on Tuesday before he was airlifted to Cairo. "I saw her in the hospital," Youssef said. "She was crying and I told her it will be OK."