Details emerge in hot air balloon crash; witness says basket looked 'full'

Investigators examine the scene of Saturday morning's crash of a large smiley face hot-air balloon, shown taking off below, near Lockhart. The NTSB says it is the deadliest such crash in U.S. history. Investigators examine the scene of Saturday morning's crash of a large smiley face hot-air balloon, shown taking off below, near Lockhart. The NTSB says it is the deadliest such crash in U.S. history. Photo: handout Photo: handout Image 1 of / 39 Caption Close Details emerge in hot air balloon crash; witness says basket looked 'full' 1 / 39 Back to Gallery

MAXWELL - Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board will comb the site of a hot air balloon crash in central Texas on Sunday, a day after at least 16 people are believed to have died in the worst such crash in U.S. history.

Sheriff's deputies responding to a call about a possible vehicle accident Saturday morning instead discovered that a reported fire was "the basket portion of a hot air balloon."

"The balloon was occupied and it does not appear at this time there were any survivors of the crash," the Caldwell County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration said that at least 16 people were traveling on the hot air balloon, which authorities say was operated by Heart Of Texas Balloon Rides, with operations in Houston, San Antonio and Austin. The balloon was piloted by Alfred G. "Skip" Nichols.

Lt. Jason Reyes of the state Department of Public Safety said late Saturday that officials would release an official death toll on Sunday.

The identities of the victims had not been released as of Saturday evening.

NTSB spokesman Erik Grosof told reporters Saturday afternoon that investigators, victim specialists and weather experts would be arriving "to begin a significant investigation into this tragedy."

RELATED: Read more about how the FAA rejected calls for tighter scrutiny of balloon operators on HoustonChronicle.com

He declined to speculate on what had happened, but said the investigation would begin "full-bore" on Sunday when the rest of the team was there.

He said "this will be a difficult site for us to work through." Aerial images showed the charred remains of the hot air balloon basket, and the deflated balloon covering a swath of a field.

Grosof said the board has asked the FBI's evidence response team, based in San Antonio, "to come and assist us with scene documentation."

He acknowledged some concerns as the investigation was getting underway.

"You have weather." he said. "You have coordination with a number of resources here – local, state and federal. Getting the documentation. It's much like a crime scene. You only get one chance at it so we want to make sure we do everything correctly."

The crash was the deadliest of its kind in U.S. history, according to the NTSB, and the worst such tragedy since a 2013 crash in Luxor, Egypt killed 19 people after a hot air balloon plummeted 1,000 feet into a sugar cane field.

A man traveling on the Texas 130 toll road who spotted the balloon before the accident told the Austin American-Statesman that he worried at the time that it was carrying too many passengers.

"I'd never seen one like that with that many people," Joe Gonzales said. "It just didn't look right."

RELATED: More witnesses speak out about the crash on HoustonChronicle.com

Brooke Lewis, Jacob Beltran, Fauzeya Rahman, Jim Pinkerton and The Associated Press contributed to this report.