The second edition of the six-day Taj Balloon Festival started on a tragic note, when three tourists including a pilot suffered injuries during an emergency landing on Friday morning.
The balloon developed some technical snag after which the pilot made an emergency landing at Kuankhera area. In the process, the pilot and two tourists suffered minor injuries as the balloon landed with a bang. The police which rushed o the spot is probing the reason behind the mishap.
The Agra Balloon Festival started with a total of 16 hot air balloons from 12 countries like the US, UK, Spain, Germany, UAE and others participating on Friday morning. The fest will include both free and tethered flights.
Officials of the Sky Waltz, who were organising the flights, said that this year the festival has been organised at a larger scale and the number of days has been doubled to six. The visibility is also better this time around, so tourists will have a better view of the Taj. last year, visibility was an issue due to heavy smog.
This year, there would be an option of commercial flights and that would depend on demand and availability of seats in balloons. The capacity of each balloon ranges from 1 to 8 persons.
The balloons will take off in the morning from six sites near the Taj Mahal. The sites will be outside the 500-meter heritage periphery as mandated by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
Moreover, there will be tethered flights at the PAC ground in the evenings which will be free. The hot air balloon festival was being organised to promote aviation-based and adventure sports for the tourists in and around the city.