4 days ago
Beaming woman says yes to fiancé's proposal on illegal hot air balloon ride...moments before gory tragedy struck
A woman's fairytale proposal aboard a hot air balloon turned into a nightmare after it crashed and killed a pregnant passenger in Capela, Brazil.
College student Gabrielle Nascimento, 27, joined her engineer fiancé Tiago Kempinas, 37, for a seven-hour drive from their Rio de Janeiro home to Boituva, a city in São Paulo.
They arrived Sunday around 5am and visited a company that offers sightseeing flights over the city - but they expressed doubts over whether the trip would take place due to strong winds, Nascimento told Brazilian news outlet G1.
Their group boarded a flight to a place she described as 'clandestine' - and were met by workers inflating two hot air balloons.
The couple got inside the basket-looking gondola along with 31 other passengers as the pilot, Fabio Pereira, assured Nascimento that he was monitoring the swirling winds with a flight device.
Everything seemed normal as the hot air balloon glided about 328 to 492 feet above ground, before Kempinas presented Nascimento with the engagement ring.
However, the euphoric marriage proposal soon ended as the pilot began to lose control.
'I had no idea that my husband would propose to me like that,' Nascimento said. 'It was beautiful, until it turned into a nightmare. It was horrible. I will never get in a balloon again, let alone a plane.'
Nascimento recalled watching how the second balloon that flew alongside her group quickly landed because of the strong winds. She could hear Pereira talking into a two-way radio about continuing the flight.
'At that moment, the balloon started going too fast. He then tried to make the first landing in an orange grove,' she said.
Nascimento remembered seeing four people being ejected from the basket as it dragged across a rural field before taking flight again.
Most of the people, including herself and her fiancé, were able to get out after it landed the second time.
Nascimento remembered watching 27-year-old Juliana Pereira, of no relation to the pilot, writhing in pain before she was eventually rescued by paramedics and rushed to an area hospital, where she died.
First responders transferred 11 passengers - all of whom suffered minor injuries - to an urgent care facility in Capela do Alto and to Sorocaba Hospital Complex in Sorocaba.
'Everyone was screaming. The girl who unfortunately died was very injured. Apparently, her nose was broken, she was bleeding and her jaw was split open,' Nascimento said.
'She was already unconscious and her coat was torn. She was moaning in pain and her husband was trying to keep her alive. At that point, the pilot was also injured. We flew over the plane for another 15 minutes until he saw a field, where we fell and were swept away.'
Pereira and her husband, Leandro Pereira, had recently married and took the hot air balloon ride to celebrate Valentine's Day - which is celebrated in Brazil on June 12.
'She was a very, very loved person. I can't believe Ju left,' Leandro's grandmother, Maria Aquino, told Brazilian news outlet G1. 'I still can't believe it, guys. A trip like that took her away.'
Leandro's aunt, Jessica Aquino, questioned the pilot's decision to carry on with the flight despite what she described as unsafe weather conditions.
'She really wanted to come on this trip. But how can they put 33 people inside a balloon in weather like this?' Jessica said.
'Today the weather was horrible, very windy, so it was completely negligent of those people who put them inside.'
Fabio Pereira, was arrested by the Civil Police on aggravated manslaughter and irregular ballooning activity charges.
Investigators found that he was only licensed to perform private flights.
