Woman Killed In Balloon Crash During Annual Fiesta

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – State police say a propane tank ruptured on a hot air balloon this morning just before the balloon’s basket tipped and a California woman fell to her death.

State police spokesman Andrew Tingwall says the ruptured tank shot out the side of the basket.

He says investigators are trying to determine whether that contributed to the tipping of the gondola.

Tingwall says the balloon became stuck on a fiberoptic line and the pilot threw a tether to a pickup truck on the ground to reel the balloon down and free it.

However, he says the tether broke, the balloon flew back up and the gondola tipped.

He says 60-year-old Rosemary Wooley Phillips fell 60 to 70 feet to her death.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)