Hong Kong travel agency stopped offering balloon trips because staff had ‘bad memories’ after fatal Luxor crash

The travel agency that led the tour of Hongkongers who died in a hot air balloon tragedy in Egypt in 2013 told an inquest there was no formal evaluation of the activity’s safety in the aftermath of the disaster.

Lau Tak-ping, Kuoni's head of product development, testified that his agency ceased to offer the activity because its staff had “bad memories” about the balloons and were still very afraid.

Nine Hongkongers aged between 33 and 62 died in Luxor on February 26, 2013, when a hot air balloon provided by Sky Cruise caught fire and plunged into a sugar cane field.

Autopsy reports found all nine died from “severe burns with multiple injuries”.

Lau told coroner June Cheung Tin-ngan that Kuoni relied on its local reception company, Paradise Travel, to inspect and liaise with Egyptian companies like Sky Cruise.

Kuoni had never been to Egypt to inspect Sky Cruise nor met anyone from the now-defunct company, said Lau, who also testified that he had never seen the company’s licence.