New Mexico Residents’ Power Restored After Tragic Hot Air Balloon Crash In Albuquerque

Thousands of residents in New Mexico have power once again following a tragic hot air balloon crash on Saturday morning in Albuquerque. The accident resulted in four deaths and one critical injury.

PNM, which provides a majority of the electricity in New Mexico, revealed around 13,777 customers were left without power when the hot air balloon crashed into a line at Central Avenue and Unser Boulevard.

The electricity provider shared several tweets throughout the morning alerting customers that it was aware of the outage. PNM revealed it planned to begin working to restore power once it was safe to do so and advised customers to prepare themselves for the predicted warm temperatures.

After a few hours without electricity, PNM was eventually able to restore power to all of the residents affected by the outage from the crash.

“Power has been fully restored to all customers that were affected by the power outage following the tragedy of this morning’s hot air balloon incident. Our hearts are deeply saddened about the loss of lives today,” the company tweeted.

The crash took place around 7 a.m. when the gondola of a Cameron 0-120 hot air balloon carrying five people detached, crashed, and then caught on fire.

Authorities revealed two men and two women between the ages of 40 and 60 were killed in the crash. However, an injured male victim was transported to the hospital with serious injuries.

“Unfortunately, 4 individuals died as a result of their wounds from the hot air balloon crash. One additional individual was transported to a local hospital and is currently in critical and unstable condition,” the Albuquerque Police Department stated in a tweet.

While the gondola was found on a street, the envelope was located around one mile south of the crash site in the backyard of a home.

Although the cause of the hot air balloon crash has not been determined, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will be investigating the incident.