19 Dead In Balloon Crash: Explosion In Egypt Kills Tourist In Hot-Air Balloon Crash Outside Of Luxor, Pilot Survives, Workers Salvage Bodies Among Debris And Gas Canister PHOTO]

19 people, died when a hot air balloon caught fire and crashed. The balloon caught fire during a mid air explosion on Tuesday near the ancient Egyptian town of Luxor. The pilot lives to talk about the incident.

Workers gathered the deceased among the balloon's debris and gas canisters. Tourist from Japan, China, France, Britain and Hungary and one person from Egypt were all killed during the horrific event.

According to Reuters, Konny Matthews, assistant manager of Luxor's Al Moudira hotel, said, "It was a huge bang. It was a frightening bang, even though it was several kilometers away from the hotel," she said by phone. "Some of my employees said that their homes were shaking."

The fire had started in the pipe linking the gas canisters to the burner, Ahmed Aboud said about the freak accident. The causes of death among the tourist were from burns sustained from the explosion and the crash, Dr. Mohamed Mustafa said.

The British government released a statement saying, "We can also confirm that one other British national was involved and is in a stable condition."

According to the Britain's Sky News television, witness U.S. photographer Christopher Michel, was on another hot-air balloon when the explosion occurred, "We heard a loud explosion behind us. I looked back and saw lots of smoke. It wasn't immediately clear that it was a balloon," he said.

According to the Al Jazeera TV's -an Egyptian channel- Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Wael el-Maadawi, a committee was heading to the scene to investigate the cause of the explosion and crash, "We cannot say whether this was because of maintenance or human (error) until the investigation committee is completely done with its investigation."