Tragedy in Cheju

BalloonLife,June1999

InFebruaryofthisyearahandfullof
balloonists around the world received in-
vitationsbyfaxtoaballooneventin
Cheju,Korea.Chejuis anislandoff the
southern tip of the Korean peninsula. The
islandiscenteredarounda6,000foot
volcanoandhundredsofsmallerhills.
Tourismisbecomingthe mainindustry
for the island. ConsideredtheHawaii of
AsiamanyKoreangotheretohoney-
moon.
Participants were told that they only
neededtobringtheirburners.Basket,
tanks,hoseconnections,andenvelope
would be provided. Each team wouldre-
ceivetravelmoney(forUSpilotsthat
amountwas$1,200)whentheyregis-
tered,accommodationandmealspro-
vided. Rental chase vehicleswithdriver
were availableforafee.Totopitoff a
$5,000cashfirstprizewitha totalprize
fund of $9,000.
Sound like an event you would want
to attend? 36 pilots, representing 18 coun-
tries, registered for the ’99 Cheju Interna-
tional Hot Air Balloon Fiesta.
Belowisthetale of arallythatone
Canadian participant called, “the balloon
eventfrom Hell.”
Derek Hancock of Portland, Oregon

was surprised one day when his neighbor
handed him a fax. It was an invitation to a
balloon event in Cheju, Korea. The neigh-
borwasnotaballoonistsohowdidit
happen that he received this fax? It seems
thatDerekhadusedhisneighborsfax
whensigningupfortheSaga[Japan]
International Balloon Fiesta last year.
The firsttentoreturntheir applica-
tionswouldreceive free rentalofa bal-
loonsystem.Youonlyneededtobring
yourown burner. Derek, who had enjoyed
Saga, faxedbackhiscompleted applica-
tionimmediately.
Twoweeksb eforetheev en the
searchedthe Internet and discoveredthat
Chejuwasa vacationdestination.After
som edi scus sio nsheandhi swife,
Maureen,decidedtomake thisa family
vacation. With accommodations and meals
provided, the travel money, this family of
four would only have to pay for two plane
tickets out of pocket.
“Theinvitationcameonlyamonth
before the event. I started corresponding
with the organizer. I asked what brand are
theballoons? Iwantedtoknowthatmy
Aerostar burnerwouldadapttothebal-
loonI would be using.”
Theysaid, “Nobrand.”
“I thought that we were losing some-
thinginthe translation. They assured me
that they had a universal frame that would
fit my burner.”
While the organizer, Mr.JunHeum
Baek, seemed like aniceperson, Hancock
decidedtodosome duediligenceof his
own. Hecontactedseveralpilotsthathe
hadmetatSaga.RichardPerry,Hong
Kong, said that hehad been to two or three
Koreanevents.Thefirstonehadbeen
canceledthe daybefore it started, but he
had already shipped his balloon there. He
lost a couple of thousanddollars inship-
pingcosts onthatevent. The same orga-
nizer, Mr. Baek, was the organizer of this
event
Bill Arras, another Oregon pilot, had

beentothe firstballooneventinKorea
and hadn’t been paidmoney promisedto
him. HancockfiguredBill Arras is going
back to this one so it couldn’t be that bad.
Arrashadarrangedforpartof histravel
money,equaltothecostofhisplane
ticket,tobetransferredtohisbankac-
count inadvance.
Hancocklearnedthatone of the top
Japanese pilotsrefusedtogobecause he
hada problem withMr. Baek.Mr. Baek
had organized a balloonflight across the
water from Korea to Japan. Apparently on
landinginJapanhehitsomeone’sroof.
TheJapanesepaidtohavetheroofre-
paired with Mr. Baek promising to reim-
bursethemwhenhereturnedtoKorea.
The money never came. Repairs and legal
fees are reportedtototal $40,000.
“Therewerelotsofwarningsigns,
but the drive to gothere was bigger than
the warning signs,” Hancock said. “I fig-
uredthat this would be the Koreanevent
thattheycomegoodwitheverything.It
certainly started off lookingokay.”
Aftertravelingfor24hoursthe
HancocksarrivedinCheju.Theywere
met at the airport by a chauffeur holding a
sign with their name. They were whisked
away to the Cheju National Stadium where
the equipment was beingassigned.
Where did all the balloons comefrom?
Inthetwomonthsbeforetheeventthe
Hain Balloon Company had built 31 bal-
loonsystem—minus burners. Who is the

Tragedy in Cheju

by Tom Hamilton

Condo units in Cheju where the pilots
were housed.

Americans (l. to r.) Owen Keown, uni-
den tified, Bill Arras, Chris Lo catell,
Derek Hancock, singing Kaeroke at open-
ing reception.

BalloonLife,June 1999

Hain Balloon Company? The Hain Para-
chute Company. Some of the equipment
was still being assembled. Arras toldBal-
loon Life thatwhenhearrivedthelast
envelopewasstillbeingsewnandfans
beingassembled.Includingmakingthe
propeller blades from woodplanks!
Bill Arras had arrived the day before
to inspect theequipment. What the Ameri-
canteamfoundwerebasketsmadeof
stainlesssteel. The bottomof the basket
had two stainless steel frames with wooden
floor boards. High density foam was placed
between the stainless panels and uprights.
Thewholeframewascoveredwith
cordova, nylonfabric, with hide over the
edges.
“Billhadalreadyinspectedthe bas-
kets,andsincetheywerenew,figured
theywoulddousforthisrally,”said
Hancock.
OnedetailwhichcaughtArras’at-
tention,someofthecableswerecutto
short. Togetaroundthis problem a hole
was cut in the floor boards so that instead
ofthecablecomingaroundtheframes
theycameatanangle. “Iwouldn’thave
caught this ifBill hadn’t already inspected
them.Itturnsoutthathalfthebaskets
wereliketh is,includingmine,”said
Hancock.
“LuckilyIwasthesecondperson
there. The whole event was like this. You
talktotheorganizerandsaythisbasket
has a problem, he says, ‘Oh take one ofthe
other ones.’
“Even thoughtheyare new systems
they are still supported by the upper frame
anyway.And it probably would have been
fine. Down the road I wouldn’t have been
socomfortable flying that.”
“Wherethecablescameoutof the
toprail, they were held in place in such a
mannerthateventuallytheywouldbe
flexedandweakened,”saidBillArras.
“Thestubsintowhichtheuprightsfit

were set at too wide of an angle, torquing
theuprights.Theinsidesofthesestubs
were left unfinished, with sharp burrs, as
weretheircounterpartsontheburner
frames.Theburnerframeswerelighter
than those made by more familiar manu-
facturers,with carabiner attachment points
thatwouldn’t survive nearly as much strain
as say a Cameron frame would.”
NextHancockgoestoinspecthis
assigned envelope. “You couldn’t see the
envelopesbecausetheywerepackedin
their bags. Thelogbooksaidzerohours,
so I don’t even think that they test inflated
them.Atleastwedon’tthinkso.They
didn’t record it in the logbooks if they did.
“We took the bottom end of the enve-
lope outanditlooked okay.”
Arrassaidthathewitnesseda cold
inflation, without being attached to a bas-
ket,ofthelastenvelopemade.Twenty
minuteswere recorded inthe logbook.
On to the burner frame and checkout
howthe burner will fit. The burnerframes
were modeledafter CameronandThun-
der & Colt styles. Hancock’s Aerostar has
a different hookup.
Therewasanergonomicproblem
also. The burner supports were designed
foranaverageKoreanheight.When
mountedtheburnercametoabouteye
levelontheinternationalpilots,forcing
them to crouch in the basket to fly.
Since Hancock’s burner didn’t fit the
framehespokewiththeorganizer.A
technicalengineer cameover.Heasked
howHancock wanted to mount theburner.
“I detailedwhatI wantedandsaidthat I
needed to have something built up higher
so that Icould mount the Aerostar burner.”
“Oh, okay, come back in two hours.”
“SoIcamebackintwohoursand
they had custom made by burnerframe for
me. It looked pretty good. I got the burn-
ers on and they mounted fine. It was kind
ofjimmyriggedbut,yeah,itwasfine.
Theyhadmade the hoses. Ihadalready
sentaheadoftimeanAerostarhose fit-
ting. They made hoses that fit my burners
and their tanks.”
Pilotswereinstructedtopickout
threefueltanksfromthetankpool. The
firstthingpilotsnoticedwasthatthere
werenogagesonthealuminumtanks.
The island didn’t have piped gas, so they
were probablyhouseholdtanks.Noone
knew for sure, but they looked just likethe
ones outside of people’s homes.

Tanks and fittings actually used on bal-
loons at the Cheju, Korea balloon event.
Top left: Hyd raulic fitting installed, po-
tential for disaster.
Middle left: Hydraulic fitting broken off
at top.
Bottom left: Hydraulic fitting for liquid
feed broken off.

BalloonLife,June 1999

“No gages, but wefigured that we
would just have short flights and that we
would burn off of one tank until it was
empty and then we would have two that
wecanflyoffofalternatively,” said
Hancock. “We would be fine.
“Lookingback on it now there were
flags that were raised. You have traveled
halfwayaroundtheworld tofly.We
wouldn’thaveflown thesesystems at
home. That was a mistake.”
Pilots askedwherethefireextin-
guishers were. They were told to go to a
store and buy them if they wanted. No-
body did.
Fuelfittingswerequick releasetypes,
similar to Tema fittings that Thunder &
Coltuses. Thunder & Colt fitting have a
lock ring so that after you push it on you
turn the lockingring to secure the fitting.
The Koreanfittingswentonthe same way
but there was no lock. Another compro-
mise pilots let go.
The American team learned that the
long term goal of the organization was to
have 100 balloons, complete with burn-
ers, for International competitionsin Ko-
rea or around Asia. This would avoid the
expense of having toshipballoonsystems
from other partsof the worldandcouldbe
rented to visiting pilots.

Chejuisrenownedfor three things—
women, rocks, and wind. Razor sharp
lava rocks are used to buildwalls around
the allthe fields. “We knew that if we had
a high wind landing that the rocks would
gorightthrough the fabric and the foam,”
Hancock commented. “But we weren’t

going to fly in high wind anyway.
“Wegot tothe stadium aboutnoon. It
turnsoutthatthey hadone busgoingtothe
hotel. The hotel was on the other side of
theisland. Theymade allthe pilotswaitat
the stadium until seven o’clock at night.
Aftertraveling for24hoursandthen
having to wait we were getting grabby.
“Thebusshowsupabouteight
o’clock. They send a 20passenger bus for
30pilots,their crew, andalltheirluggage.
There was no way that I wasn’tgettingon
this bus.
“Theysaid, ‘Oh, we willsend the bus
backforyou.’Thehotel was an hour
away. Hour there, hour back. There was
no way we were going to wait. So, we all
got on this bus, we were sittingon top of
luggage. They drove us off to the other
side of the island.
“Itwasa beautifulhotel. They put us
upin condos. We had a two bedroom unit
withkitchen, righton the ocean. We were
stillpumped up at this point.”
Sundaywastheofficial check-in.
Since pilotswere at the stadium for seven
hours onSaturday the officialsdecided to
hold check-in there.Promised“pilot’s
suits”turned out to be a sweatshirt.
The travel money promised “hadn’t
arrivedbecause thecheck-inreallywasn’t
scheduled until the next day.”
The only thing planned for Sunday
was an opening ceremony in the stadium

Remnant of the balloon and burner that hit the powerline, shown in inset. Pilot was
ejected on earlier landing attempt. Passenger did not make any attempt to avoid line
as balloon descended into powerline. Basket severed from envelope on contact.

Left: Balloon that broke lose from main
site in flight. Notice envelope distortion.
Bottom left: Envelope at final landing
site. Basket not found by Canadian team
searching for it. Fate of pilot unknown.
Below: Remnants of the burner and frame
support. This is the same Korean burner
pictured on page 21, lower right.

BalloonLife,June 1999

and a big dinner in the main city on the
stadium sideof the island. At four o’clock
a bus brought the balloon teams to the
stadium.
“Wegotto thestadiumand they
canceledthe opening ceremony.Don’t
know why,they just canceled it,” said
Hancock. “There wasnobodyaround. We
didn’tsee any advertisingfor thisballoon
event. Then they took us to the hotel and
hadafantasticreception,fancytable
cloths, all kinds of food and drinks.”
The firstflightwas thenextmorning.
The pilotcheck-in was supposeto be 6:30
a.m. The busdidn’tarrive atthe hoteluntil
6:30 a.m. and it was a 45 minute drive to
the launch site. The launch site sitson top
of a hill. Aspilotsand crew exited the bus
they were created by blowing windabout
10-12 knots.
At the pilotmeeting the event direc-
tor, not Mr. Baek, cancels the morning’s
flight. It is to windy.
Back to the hotel and hang out. The
afternoon briefingwasto be at 2 p.m. The
first bus arrived to get the some of the
pilotsthere by 2 but somethinghappened
tothe second busanditdidn’tarrive atthe
siteuntil 3. That was okay because it was
blowing a gale when they arrived.
“We gointo the briefingtent and
there were task sheets and baggies on all
the seats,”said Hancock. “I thought back
to whenIwasat Sagaandtheevent
director did that as a joke. It wasreal
windy outside and he put baggies out for
everyone but announced at the briefing
that it was just a joke. So wekind of
laughed at the task sheets and baggies.
The event directorannounces a fly-in task
launching from 2 to 4 kilometers away.
Thetargetwouldbebackatthemainfield.
Launch window was 30 minutes.
“Ourwindgage wasreadingbetween
18 and 20 knots. We just laughed.We
asked if we could see a pibal go up. They
had given us all thiswind data, butit was
in meter per second. Didn’t mean any-
thing to us. We already had our 18-20
knots reading. We had already decided
thatwe weren’tgoingtofly.Theydid said
they had already put a pibal up. That was
the end of the briefing.
“We all went outside and just hung
out. Then we observed the Chinese and
Korean pilots getting in the trucks and
driving off. This is crazy, there is no way
they are even going to get inflated.

“RickWalczak,theNewZealand
pilot,and I decidedtotakehis balloonand
do just a cold inflation to check out the
equipment.Wewentoutandfounda
sheltered spotnot too far from the launch
site. Theenvelopelooked okay.It had
probably been copied on a Cameron pat-
tern.
“We were in the middle of packing
hisballoonupwhenwesee balloonscom-
ing up from the bottom of the valley. We
couldn’t believe it. Then they hit the 18
knots, youshould have seen the shapesof
these balloons.Itwasuglywatching them
suck in and thenbellow out. Theonly
thing thatwecould think ofthat was
driving these Chinese and Korean pilots
was the $5,000 prize money, which was
probably a lot of money to them.
“Wesawabout10out ofthe36
balloonslaunchthatafternoon.Youknow,
in competitionif you can get one task in
ahead of everyone else then youjust need
to average with the rest of them and you
have it made. Most of them missed the
takeoffwindow, some of them didn’ttake
offat theproperdistance.You had to
score within 200 meters of the target. No
one came close to the target area.
“We saw one balloon that pancaked
over the topof us. As I watched itfly into
the distance I could seesmokecoming
from the basket. I said to Rick, ‘Does that
look like smoke to you.’ He got his bin-
oculars out and said, ‘Yes it is smoke.’ I
sent my kids back to the van because I
thought we weregoing to seeit come
streaming down any second. It went be-
hind the hill and we didn’t see it again.
“We packed up his balloon and went
back to the launch site. There was pande-
monium.
“Thenwe saw thisballoon comingat
powerlines, huge hummers, six rows of
powerlines,biggestonesI have ever seen.
The occupant wasn’t burning. It hit the
powerlines and the tanks exploded start-
ing a bush fire on the ground. Turned out
that the 35 hour Korean pilot had been
bounced out onanattemptedlanding. His
volunteer crew was now in the balloon
alone and didn’t knowwhat to. He died in
the collisionwith the powerlines.
“Emergencyvehiclesgoingevery
which way.”
There were five accidents that day.
One confirmed fatality, although many
believe there may have been twofatalities

because one pilot can’t be accounted for.
Five people were hospitalized, including
three with burns and one broken back.
“There was one balloonthat I’ve got
a picture of inflightandallthatishanging
from itis the burnersand the bottom third
of the envelope iscompletely burned out.
We don’t know what happened to that
pilot,”said Hancock.
“The only European pilot who flew
was fromNorway. Later wefound out
thatwhen hegottothe stadium andlooked
at the hose connections he went to the
organizer and said I am not flying with
these hose connections or tanks. The or-
ganizerarranged Cameron tanksandhose
connections forhim.Hehadseen the
danger of these hose connections. There
was no communications between the pi-
lotsabout the quality of the equipment.”
Bill Arrasreported that a Chinese
team cold inflated a balloon at the main
field. To the surprise of the pilotswatch-
ing the pilot hot inflated. “A short time
later the balloon suddenly shot upward.
At about 100 feet it shook wildly as it
strained momentarily against aline at-
taching itto the ground before continuing
with itsclimb. The envelope was grossly
misshapen, lopsided and ugly to those of
uswatching from the sidelines. It seemed
to take forever to settle into a more re-
laxed balloonshape andtostopswaying.”
StanWereschuk, a Canadian partici-
pant,and his teamchased this balloon
when it appeared that no one else was
goingto. After some searchingthe Cana-
dianswere able toconvinceanambulance
tofollow the balloonandtheyclimbedin.
“After about 10 to 15 minutes we
heard the driver and his assistant making
wild noises up front. I learned down to
look out the front window and witnessed
an onboard fire,” said Wereschuk. “AllI
could see was the burner and envelope. I
have no idea what happened to the basket
and pilot, we never found him.”
Wereschukwentsearching for the
pilotandbecame separatedfrom the other
members. The other Canadians and am-
bulance crew started to look for the pilot
back toward the launch area when they
witnessed a second envelope and burner
inflightwithout the basket. They discov-
eredaninjured pilotwithburns beginning
taken out of a smallfieldfrom the second
disconnected balloon.
At least two onboard fires may have

BalloonLife,June 1999

beena result ofhose connections coming off in flight. The
American team later learned thatinstead of propane gas connec-
tions, hydraulic connections were used.
“I wouldn’t knowthe difference between thetwo,” said
Hancock. “Apparently hydraulic connection works on a much
higher pressure. When these popped off in flightthere is another
ball valve which should shoot up and close the valve. There
wasn’tenoughpressure for thesevalvestocloseand theyjustshot
raw propane up into the balloon, past the pilot light. There were
two onboard fires as a result of that.”
A Chinese team had a highwindlandingand hit a lava rock
wall, the connection came off and the pilotburned his hand and
face trying to turn off the main valve.
Withallthisgoingon Hancock had visionsof theauthorities
coming in and sealing off the launch field, impounding all the
equipment, including his burner for the investigation. Hancock
decided to get his burner off and out of there.
“Whenwe found outthe informationaboutthe onboard fires
therewerestill threeorfourballoons in theair.Wetried
frantically all the different frequencies to try and warn these
pilotsofthe inherentdangertheywereflyingwith,”saidHancock.
Some of the pilotsconducted their own investigation after-
wards. It showed that there were two different manufacturers of
hose connectionsused. Since allthe tanks were putin a poolthey
speculated that themaleandfemale parts might havebeen
different manufacturers.
After that day the event was canceled.
“We all would have flown if it had been calm that day. I am
just glad that we didn’t have eight knot winds, marginal condi-
tions where you probably would have flown,” said Hancock.
“Everybodywould havebeengoing,you would havebeen
dragged intoflying, notsettingyour own standards. The fact that
it was windy was a god send for us.”
The pilotsreturned to the hotel where a dinner wasplanned.
They met over dinner and discussed what they were goingto do.
They decided to stick together as a group. The nextmorningthe
pilotsarranged a meeting with the organizers.
The organizers said that the pilots needed to packup their
belonging and theywouldbeflownto Seoul.This wason
Mondayandthey wantedthe pilotsandcrew tostay inSeouluntil
Saturday, then fly home.
What about the travel money?
“No, we hadn’t got our showup money at that point,” said
Hancock. “We asked about the money and they said, ‘There has
been a financialproblem thatwe are workingon andwe willhave
it for you tomorrow in Seoul.’”
ThepilotsgatheredtogetherandelectedBillArrasasspokes-
man.They refused to go to Seoul.They stood their ground
pointing out that the Korean’s had invited them to come to this
island and they are staying here.
The organizer offered, “Howabout ifwe putyou ina Korean
style hotel?” A Korean style hotel is a room with no beds, just a
floor mattress. The group said, “No, you invited us here. You
work out what you are going to do to keep us here.”
Hancock said that theKorean andChinese pilots disap-
peared later that day. Apparently the organizer spoke with them
separately and moved them to a Korean style hotel. There were
about 16 pilotsin this group. They received two rooms, one for

men and one for women.
The organizer reported back to the coalition that they had
spoken with the hotel, a major sponsor, and they couldstay until
Saturday on two conditions. First, they were not allowed to talk
to the press. Second, they could only talk to the investigators
through the “official” interpreter. The pilots agreed. The travel
money was promised to be paid the next day.
The next morning the pilotshad a meeting to plan strategy
since the money hadn’t come. It was getting towards the end of
the week and they were running out of time. The organizer said
the money would be there at five o’clock that afternoon.
“Allthey were doing was buying time,” said Hancock. “At
the end of the week we all go home and there is nothing you can
do.Wefigured theypickedfive o’clockbecauseallthe embassies
would be closed.”
The group started arguing amongst themselves whatcourse
of action to take. The Britishpilot decided that regardless what
the group was going to do he was going to go and talk with the
Britishembassy to see if anything couldbe done. The rest of the
group decidedto waituntilfive o’clockbecause the Koreans will
see going to the embassies as a threat and they wouldn’t get
anything.
TheBritish pilot calledthe embassy aroundtenin the
morning. By noon the money arrived. No one knows for sure if
there is a connection or not.
“They paid us all with a suitcase of money,”said Hancock.
“They took us individually to give us the money, Korean cur-
rency. After we received and signed for the money they said,
‘You needto signthiscopy and thiscopy.’ Blankexpense sheets.
I signed three of them.”
Later the pilotsgot together and wondered why they wanted
those extra pages?
“Afterwards we all thought how stupid it was to sign the
blank pages, but we had our money,” said Hancock.
One of the pilotsconfronted the organizer and asked why he
wanted the extra pagessigned. “They justneeded the extra pages
for whatever reason and they have already been sent to Seoul.”
Thisisan hourafter the dispensingof themoney. The organizer’s
assistant, with the briefcase that held the money and forms, was
spotted as he was going out of the hotel and confronted.
Witnesses reportthatthere was almosta fistfightinthe hotel
lobby.Severalpilots barricadedaccess tothewaiting taxi.
Eventually the briefcase was opened. There were all the extra
blankpageswhichhad beensigned. Theywere allgivenbackand
destroyed.
Would Hancock go back to Cheju?
“Yes, we have alreadysaidthatwe would go backto Cheju,
butwithout blinkers onthis time, money up front, make sure it is
certified [equipment].Asmuch as I hate to have to go to a repair
station every time you get a little tear and have to pay someone
to stitcha piece of fabric on, that you could do in five minutes, I
have a new appreciation for what our certifications do for us. I
have a new level of conditionsthat I wouldnot flyunder. I think
the lesson for everybody is not to lower your standards. If you
wouldn’t fly it at home why would fly it over seas.
“I thinkthat it is good that we all kept our standard of when
we wouldtake off inwind. That probablysavedsome of ourlives.
On our first flight Maureen had already decided that the whole

BalloonLife,June 1999

family was going to go up. We were going to see the island from
the air. Allfour of us would have been in the basket. Those hoses
connectionswould have popped off regardless of wind. It was a
real eye opening experience.”
“Whatismostimportanttoballoonistscouldn’tbe mandated
byregulationevenif we wantedittobe,”said BillArras. “Instead
I advocate that pilotshelp pilotsby supportingeach other in our
collective bestinterestby makingsure thatorganizersknow what
we want and need. Thismeans that more pilotsneed to speak up
at briefings to voice opinions, more letters need to be written
before and after events, more articles must be written. In short,
pilotsmustbe more involved if we are toget what we want. The
strongest form of action would be to notfly a particular flightor
toboycottan event entirely. Enoughpeople doingthis wouldget
the attention of the organizer.
“Mostof all we need to support each other. Too many times
at an event briefing one person will speak up for the common
good, withoutgettingany apparent backing of the group. When
a pilotsticks his or her neck out to say something you believe in,
show your support immediately. Don’t wait to see who else is
goingtojumponboard. Take the opportunitytoletthe organizers
knowhow youfeel.Encourage othersto dothe same. The Boston
TeaParty was successful only because enough people were
willing to join together to make their belief’s known.
“We allmustrecognize our responsibilityinthe processand
act appropriately. Let’slearn from what happened in Korea, that
our silence canallowsafetyto be compromised, leadingto injury
and even death. It might be our own senseless death we help
prevent.”