Four persons, of whom one Slovenian and three Belgian citizens, were injured in a hot air balloon accident in the area of the Ljubljana Marshes on Saturday morning, 22 January, the Ljubljana Police Department said to Slovenian press agency STA.
The injured persons were taken to the University Clinical Centre of Ljubljana, and their injuries were not considered life-threatening.
The accident happened around 10:00 in the area between Škofljica and Ig. The balloon, carrying six passengers (five of them Belgians), had taken off from Bistra for a one-hour trip together with another balloon. It had just started to land when the gondola violently hit the ground. The four were injured when they fell out of the balloon as it landed in strong wind. The other balloon landed safely with three persons onboard.
The injured are the 55-year-old Belgian pilot, two Belgian women aged 28 and 54 and a 67-year-old Slovenian pilot assistant. Three of them were seriously injured. Traumatologist Franc Štefani? told the press that one of the men had sustained the severest injuries, of the head and chest. The other two sustained injuries of the spine.
