Tour escort told me balloon had drifted rather than crashed, widower tells Hong Kong inquest
Two hours later the man’s anxieties were confirmed when he found out his wife was among nine dead from city in Luxor disaster
A man who lost his wife and three in-laws in a hot air balloon tragedy in Egypt three years ago said a tour escort told him the balloon had merely drifted away when he anxiously inquired about their late return to the hotel.
The testimony of Wong Kong-sing, 71, came as the coroner’s court heard for the first time tour escort Wilson Au’s internal report submitted to Kuoni travel agency’s management.
The inquest before coroner June Cheung Tin-ngan followed the death of nine Hongkongers in Luxor on February 26, 2013, when the hot air balloon caught fire mid-air and plunged into a sugar cane field.
“I was very anxious,” he testified in a calm voice as he recalled waiting in the hotel lobby.
When the tour escort returned without his wife at 9am, Wong recalled: “[Au] told me that the hot air balloon had drifted some distance further away and that he would deal with the matter later on.”
Less than two hours later, Au returned from hospital with news of their deaths.
