11 dead in New Zealand hot air balloon crash.

BBC - Eleven people died in a hot-air balloon crash near the town of Carterton in New Zealand.

Police and witnesses say the balloon struck power lines and burst into flames, before plunging to the ground.

The incident occurred in the Wairarapa region, about 80km (50 miles) north of the capital Wellington - an area that is popular with balloonists.

Five couples from the Wellington area were on board, plus the pilot. Nobody survived.

The crash happened on farmland at Clareville, near Carterton, on New Zealand's North Island.

Eyewitness Bevan Lambess, who was driving by, told Reuters news agency: "The wicker basket was on fire and I saw something holding it down - it looked like ropes but I got closer and it was actually the top (electric) power line that was holding the basket down.

"It probably still would have been 15m in the air. I slowed down and then the whole basket started to go up in flames."

A police commander, Mike Rusbatch, said two people appeared to have jumped from the basket of the balloon as it came down.

Another witness, David McKinley, told the state broadcaster TVNZ he noticed part of the basket was on fire when it passed over his garden.

"It was just above the trees when I first saw it. It looked like he tried to raise it a bit higher. All of a sudden there was just 10m of flames.

"It was like a rocket coming down," he said.

The incident occurred in bright, clear conditions with little wind. New Zealand's Transport Accident Investigation Commission has opened an inquiry.

The incident is New Zealand's worst air disaster since 1979, when an Air New Zealand sightseeing flight crashed into Mt Erebus in Antarctica, killing all 257 passengers on board.