Pilot arrested for jumping out of burning hot air balloon and leaving couple to die in 130ft fall

Víctor Guzmán was brought in after being released from the hospital with 90% of his body covered in burns

UPDATED APR 4, 2023

Victor Guzman (L) escaped the flaming hot air balloon abandoning Jose Nolasco and his wife Viridiana Becerril (R) (@Víctor Guzman Pérez/Facebook, @MikeSington/Twitter)

SAN JUAN TEOTIHUACAN, MEXICO: A pilot has been arrested after escaping a hot air balloon accident in Mexico that left a husband and wife dead. Their 13-year-old daughter is still hospitalized after falling 131 feet from the burning balloon. Victor Guzmán was detained after he jumped 16 feet from the damaged balloon and escaped. He was brought in after being released from the hospital with 90% of his body covered in burns.

Viridiana Becerril, 39, and José Nolasco, 50, died when the aircraft crashed in a huge explosion over a pre-Hispanic pyramid site in Teotihuacán, State of Mexico, on Saturday. Regina Itzani, their 13-year-old daughter, managed to escape the crashed balloon before it struck Earth, but she is still in the hospital due to second-degree burns and a broken arm.

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Who is Víctor Guzmán?

Víctor Guzmán claimed to have given up the balloon that the family had rented for a surprise birthday trip because he was unsure of how to handle the situation, according to agents working for the State of Mexico Attorney General's Office, reported Daily Mail.

The hot air balloon incident on Saturday morning is being investigated by Mexico's Federal Aviation Agency. Horrifying video footage appears to show passengers leaving the craft, much to the horror of bystanders. Witnesses claimed Guzmán leaped off the balloon, leaving the family behind, as it was hovering in flames at a height of about 16 feet. He fell to the ground and then sprinted off. The balloon's carriage was totally burned and torn to pieces by the impact of the accident.

Who owns Autocinema Retroviso?

The business, Autocinema Retroviso, is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Agency, which is also checking to see if it has the necessary insurance to cover accidents and whether it is authorized to provide the hot air balloon service. Zaid Sánchez, whose uncle Mario Vidal is the Teotihuacán public security agency commissioner, is the owner of the company. According to a declaration from the Teotihuacán Hot Air Balloon Federation, Autocinema Retroviso is not one of the eight businesses that provide this service. "It is imperative that these same authorities act effectively in order to cancel the operations of companies that, unfortunately, operate outside the legal framework and sometimes in hiding, affecting the safety of the operations of all of us who operate in the immediate vicinity of the archaeological site of Teotihuacán," the federation stated, as per Daily Mail.

Even though there are about 3,000 hot air balloon mishaps annually, deadly ones are incredibly uncommon. Only 16 individuals are believed to have perished in hot air balloon accidents in the US between 2002 and 2016, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, as per New York Post.