Egypt balloon tragedy inquest hears travel agency didn’t verify licence and insurance of trip providers
Kuoni representative admits customers were not told activity’s degree of risk
The travel agency that led the tour to Egypt on which nine Hongkongers died in a hot air balloon tragedy in 2013 admitted to an inquest that it did not verify claims that the service provider was licensed and insured.
Lau Tak-ping, head of Kuoni’s product development, also admitted that customers were not reminded of the activity’s degree of risk, which the company had categorised as “moderate”.
He conceded that it would have been better to keep customers informed of that assessment.
The nine died in Luxor on February 26, 2013, when a hot air balloon caught fire mid-air and plunged into sugar cane fields.
An investigation by an Egyptian committee found that the accident’s probable cause was a fuel hose leak, which spurted the flammable liquid onto the balloon’s burner.
That led to a fire, which also caused “a major and direct injury to the balloon captain”.