(Bloomberg) – The pilot of a hot-air balloon that crashed last summer in Texas, killing himself and 15 sight-seeing passengers, had taken a cocktail of prohibited drugs before liftoff including the opiate pain-killer oxycodone, according to government documents.
Alfred "Skip" Nichols was able to continue flying people for hire in spite of being convicted five times for driving while intoxicated and three times for drug offenses. The incident revealed lax regulations on balloon operators and a regulatory loophole that made it difficult to take enforcement action against him, according to documents prepared for a National Transportation Safety Board hearing.
The hot-air balloon controlled by Nichols, 49, struck high-power lines near Lockhart, Texas, on July 30 and plunged to the ground, bursting into flames and killing all aboard. The death toll was the highest in a single U.S. aviation accident since 50 died in a 2009 commuter plane crash near Buffalo, New York.
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