Experts: Pilot of Crashed Texas Balloon on 10 Different Prescription Meds

The pilot of a hot air balloon that crashed in Texas in July took medications that should have precluded him from flying, medical experts said at a federal hearing on Dec. 9.

Alfred “Skip” Nichols was killed along with 15 passengers in the July 30 accident, in which the balloon hit high-tension power lines before crashing into a pasture near Lockhart. He went up in the balloon despite knowing that the weather wasn’t good, experts said at the National Transportation Safety Board hearing.

Nichols suffered from high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, diabetes, depression, attention deficit disorder, insomnia, fibromyalgia and chronic back pain, according to an NTSB report presented at the hearing. He was prescribed at least 10 different drugs for his ailments, including insulin and oxycodone. Medical experts said some of the medications, including oxycodone, would have disqualified Nichols from flying. It’s not clear whether the 49-year-old pilot was impaired during the early morning flight. A final NTSB report won’t be issued until early next year.

Nichols flew on a day when the cloud ceiling was 700 feet and the forecast didn’t call for the sky to clear.

“When this accident pilot received a weather briefing, the weather briefer said, ‘Yeah, those clouds may be a problem for you. Don’t know how long you plan to stay, but,’ and then the pilot replied, ‘Well, we just fly in between them. We find a hole and we go,”‘ said NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt.

Several experts testified that they would not have flown in that weather.

“Going in and out of the clouds really is not an option and it’s not a very comfortable feeling as a pilot being up there and being faced with that type of choice,” said Scott Appelman, owner of Rainbow Ryders Hot Air Balloon Ride Co., one of the largest hot air balloon operators in the U.S.