'We nearly died in the same balloon': British couple tell of horror plunge into the Nile two years ago

Julia and Alex Gibbons say it was a miracle they survived 2011 journey

It was a miracle that we weren't killed. It was that close,' Mrs Gibbins said.

Other Britons tell horror stories of their balloon trips over Luxor



A British couple almost died in the same hot air balloon that fell from the sky yesterday, revealing it crashed into the Nile when they were on board two years ago.

Julia and Alex Gibbons, from Sheffield, have warned other tourists never to take similar flights as they say it was a 'miracle' they survived in 2011.

They and around 20 others were left completely terrified after the overcrowded hot air balloon ran out of gas, narrowly missed a high-rise hotel before plunging into the Nile.

Footage of the incident clearly shows it is the same vessel as the one that took the lives of three Britons and 16 other foreign tourists yesterday.

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Terrifying: A Sheffield couple were in the same balloon that exploded killing 19 yesterday when it crashed into the Nile in 2011

Lucky: Julia and Alex Gibbons say nobody should ever take these flights as they believe it is a miracle they never died when it ran out of gas

'We were lucky not to have been killed. It was a miracle that we weren't killed. It really was that close,' Mrs Gibbins said.

Her husband Alex added: 'You get caught up in the holiday picture-postcard type of sell they have for you but we weren't aware of the volume of people that went in a basket.'

The same balloon they rode in in 2011 exploded in a fireball 1,000ft above the Valley Of The Kings In Egypt yesterday.



Joe Bampton, 40, and Yvonne Rennie were among 19 tourists killed during an early morning flight over the ancient ruins of Luxor when their balloon caught fire and exploded after it hit a power line.



British resident Suzanna Gyetvai, 34, the girlfriend of Mr Bampton, also died in the blaze which killed 19 tourists.

Holiday companies, including Thomas Cook, recommend that tourists take the tours, which cost around £70 per person.



Footage: A video of the incident showed the full basket with frightened tourists fearing for their lives

View: The film shows the basket being dragged along the Nile before just making it over a boat and collapsing on the banks

Sixteen people were hurt, including two British women, when another balloon crashed during a tour of Luxor in April 2009.

Retired policeman Linda Lea, 67, from Stoke-on-Trent, had to spend four months in hospital with 26 broken bones, and could not hide her distress that another incident had happened so soon afterwards.

Following the 2009 crash, early morning hot air balloon flights over the Valley of the Kings on the West Bank of the Nile were suspended for six months while safety measures were tightened up.



During the break, all 42 pilots from the eight companies who operate flights had extra training, but it has not stopped another disaster.



'It brought back all the mayhem and horrific events of that day,' Mrs Lea said.

'These balloons are just too unstable. There is not enough training of staff. There were about 22 or 23 in my balloon when it crashed and maybe there was too many then, and too many in today's accident,' she said.

Beautiful: Hot air balloon trips over the Valley of the Kings is incredibly popular but there are plenty of horror stories from British tourists about them

Only last month Londoner Mark Packer was on a balloon ride in Luxor that left him 'scared' after the pilot seemed slapdash with equipment befoe they crashed into a tree.



'They go up to 800 or 1,000 feet, then bring the balloon down and across the temples at a low height,' he told the BBC.

Michael Marlow, from Blairgowrie, said yesterday's tragedy brought back memories of a hot air balloon flight he took over the Valley of the Kings a few years ago.



Mr Marlow said the balloon he was in caught fire as its operator tried to avoid power lines.



He told BBC Radio Scotland that when he heard about the accident in Luxor, 'I thought "There but for the grace of God, that could have happened to us".'

Heartbreak: The green and yellow balloon (far left), which had crashed into the Nile two years ago, pictured yesterday just 40 minutes before it exploded

Tragic: Medical workers in Cairo transfer bodies of victims of the hot air balloon crash off a plane from Luxor

Loss of life: Three Britons died when the balloon dropped from the sky at 1,000 ft over Egypt during a dawn flight

Speaking on the Good Morning Scotland programme, he said: 'We went to Luxor and we had an early-morning flight. The balloon flight should have taken us over the Valley of the Kings but, due to the wind direction, it took us in another direction.



'We started to head towards some power lines and whether the operator didn't see them or not we don't know, but what happened was he started frantically to get the balloon above the power lines, and in doing so he set the balloon on fire.'



He added: 'I was looking down at the time, but suddenly my neck felt rather warm, and I said to the gentleman next to me and he looked up and said 'No wonder - the balloon is on fire'.



'Suddenly all this hot debris came falling down on us and we dropped down into the basket and he put his coat over us and we just sat down right in the bottom of the basket.



'In a matter of minutes really, I can't say how long it took, the balloon started to come down very fast and all I can remember is we had this heavy thud on the ground and we landed in this field.



'When we stopped no-one spoke. Everyone was shook up and in shock.'



Mr Marlow said he was not injured but his wife was 'very badly bruised' and another man in the balloon hurt his ankle, leaving him struggling to walk,



He recalled: 'There was quite a lot of people badly bruised, there was no real bad injuries, hospital injuries, but there was a lot of people shocked and badly bruised.'

