New Worst Death

A hot air balloon burst into flames over western Canada on Friday evening, burning a woman and her adult daughter to death while their families looked on.

Other passengers leaped to the ground, some with their clothes in flames, witnesses said. Eleven passengers were seriously injured when the balloon crashed in a recreational vehicle park near the U.S border in Surrey, British Columbia. John Kageorge, who works for Fantasy Balloon Charters, said the fire started as the ballon was about to launch. Kageorge said three passengers did not get out of the basket before it became airborne.

"One person jumped from an unsafe distance, two stories in the air or more," said Kageorge. The mother and daughter did not jump, he said, although two of their family members made it out of the basket.

"The thing went up about 400 feet in the air at which point it melted enough of the balloon — it collapsed," said Don Randall, a resident of the trailer park who took pictures of the scene. "The basket was basically a fireball. It just dropped like a stone," he added. "I'm just thinking, 'Oh geez, I hope there's nobody in that thing. It's basically a burning death up there,'" he said.

By the way, there was a similar accident earlier this month in Manitoba where 12 people were injured.

Exploding steam pipes, plane crashes, and now flaming balloon chariot of death -- just the worst ways to die. Me, I will continue to die a little every day from the stupidity and poor decisions of the people in the world around me.

ps. I do like that we live in a surveilled world, were everybody has a camera phone / digital camera / mini DV cam and that absolutely nothing is missed, even hot air balloons going Hindenburg