Two charges brought against owner of hot air balloon from which parachutists jumped and one died

The Prosecutor's office has filed two charges against the owner of the hot air balloon from which two parachutists jumped, one died and the other was seriously injured. The man was detained for 72 hours.

One parachutist died, another one injured after jumping from a hot air balloon

Three inspections have been carried out at the scene of the incident near the Botevgrad village of Litakovo. So far it is clear that the parachute of the man who died did not open. The participants had jumped with their own parachutes, which met safety requirements. The latter has been established by a parachute jumping instructor from the Specialized Counter Terrorism Unit who has examined the parachute at the scene.

Meanwhile, the home of the accused was searched and documents were seized. The man has five previous convictions - for theft, road traffic accident, destruction of another's property and two counts of drug possession. His most recent charge is from 2018.

So far, about 10 people have been questioned about the incident, including a paraglider who was at the scene and witnessed it.

The accused was operating the balloon but was neither an instructor nor licensed to do so. The balloon also had no registration and had not passed the required technical inspection. It was seized as physical evidence.

The meeting between the participants of the jump was arranged on the Internet. There is no information whether they paid the owner of the balloon.

Incidents with parachutists on the territory of Sofia region have increased - since the beginning of the year there have been four, with two injured and two dead, explained the supervising prosecutor. However, this is the first case in which a parachutist dies after jumping from a hot air balloon.