A hot air balloon carrying 19 tourists burst into flames over Luxor, Egypt. Only three initially survived the aerial inferno,

The casualties hailed from many different countries including France, Great Britain, Belgium, Hungary, Japan, and Hong Kong.

Although three survived the airborne blaze and explosion, one of the survivors died at a local hospital, leaving only the pilot and one British tourist alive.

The balloon was initiating landing procedures at 7am, when one of the landing cables got caught around a helium tube. That is when the fire erupted. This caused the balloon to shoot up into the air to an altitude of 1,000 feet, where a gas canister exploded plunging the balloon into a sugar cane field 1,000 feet below. Thye plunge took a full two minutes.

The accident occurred in the skies above the ancient city of Luxor. Luxor, is the home to the temples of Karnak and Luxor as well as the valley of the Kings. Balloon tours are common in the area, that mode of transportation affords the best views of the vicinity where Tutenkhamun was buried.

This horrific balloon accident is the deadliest of its kind. Luxor has also seen previous, less deadly balloon accidents as well, in 2008, seven tourists were injured in a crash, the next year, in 2009, 13 more were injured when their balloon collided with a transmission tower.