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January 7th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda 
NBC News
Part of the crash scene is seen from the air in Carterton, New Zealand.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A hot air balloon caught fire and crashed, killing all 11 people on board, a local official said.
The balloon came down just north of the town of Carterton, Wairarapa District Health Board spokeswoman Jill Stringer said.
Eyewitnesses told local media of flames shooting up to 30 feet from the balloon’s basket before it plummeted to the ground.
Police say they have no details yet of what caused the early morning crash in clear, bright conditions with minimal wind.
At least two Carterton residents said the balloon hit a power line or pole.
“The power went out at our place,” The New Zealand Herald quoted Bella Biggs as saying. “They hit a power pole.”
“The people were enjoying a nice ride and by the looks of it they clipped a power wire,” the Fairfax NZ News quoted an unnamed resident as saying.
Marty Melville / Getty Images
Emergency services attend the scene of a hot air balloon crash on Saturday in Carterton, New Zealand.
“I was watering the garden and heard a noise, the noise of the gas to raise the balloon,” added resident David McKinlay. “I looked over and I couldn’t believe it — one side of the basket was on fire.”
“It was just above the trees when I first saw it … it looked like he (the pilot) tried to raise it a bit higher … all of a sudden there was just 10 meters of flames,” he added.
“It came down like a bloody rocket and then there was a big bang,” McKinlay was quoted as saying in The Herald. “It was just flames and it was just a long streak of flames … The impact must have been terrible.”
The identities of the victims were not immediately available, but officials said the dead were the pilot and 10 couples, some from Carterton and others from outside the area.
Carterton is some 50 miles north of Wellington, New Zealand’s capital. The region is well known for its hot air ballooning.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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