Sole tourist to survive Luxor hot air balloon crash pays tribute to wife

THE only tourist to survive a hot air balloon crash in Egypt has paid tribute to those that died in the tragedy - including his wife.

THE only tourist to survive a hot air balloon crash in Egypt has paid tribute to those that died in the tragedy - including his wife.

Scotsman Michael Rennie was among 20 tourists on board the ill-fated ride, that crashed after catching fire above the ancient Egyptian city of Luxor on Tuesday.

The 49-year-old, along with the balloon's Egyptian pilot, survived by jumping off as the damaged vessel approached closer to the ground.

Miraculously, he escaped with only minor injuries and is likely to be discharged from a Cairo hospital today.

In a statement issued by the Foreign Office, Mr Rennie described his wife Yvonne as his ''rock''.

''Yvonne was my rock, my friend, my shoulder to cry on. She was my world,'' he said.

He added: ''My heartfelt condolences go out to the other families that have lost relatives around the world in this terrible disaster.''

Witnesses said Mr Rennie ran 200m along a track from where the balloon first touched down to get help.

"He'd have seen the balloon rise up above him, with the basket and canopy ablaze - his wife Yvonne still in it. He shouted 'my wife','' one witness said.

The grief-stricken Scot is reported to have since contacted his wife's parents to apologise for her death, the Scotsman reports.

But her father William Harris said of his son-in-law: ''He's a broken man. He broke down when he spoke to me and apologised.

''But we know it wasn't Michael that dragged her on to that balloon - it was Yvonne that dragged Michael. Nightmare doesn’t describe it.''

Investigators say the balloon was in the process of landing when a fuel line for the burner heating the air in the balloon broke, sparking a fire.

The balloon then rose back up some 300 meters into the air.

The fire spread to the balloon itself, which burst, sending it plummeting into a sugar cane field.

Witnesses have said some of the tourists still trapped in the burning balloon as it rose jumped to their deaths trying to escape.

Amateur video taken from another balloon flying nearby shows it crashing it back to the earth like a fireball into a sugar cane field.

Mr Rennie told his doctors that ''he fell in a muddy area, and this helped him.''

The head of the Civil Aviation Authority's technical investigation into the accident, Walid el-Moqadem, said he has has asked to speak to Mr Rennie, who Egyptian media said did speak with a separate, criminal prosecutor investigating the crash to rule out foul play.

Mr Rennie told criminal investigators that most of those in the balloon squatted when the fire broke out, following the pilot's instructions, according to the Egyptian newspaper Al-Watan.

Investigators have not yet spoken to the pilot because of his injuries.

El-Moqadem said countries of some of the crash victims have asked to join the probe.

He said so far Hong Kong, Britain, Japan and Hungary will not be sending investigators, and will be granted an advisory role in the investigation in line with regulations.

Investigators speaking on condition of anonymity because the probe was still ongoing said initial results suggested a landing cable tore the fuel tube and that the pilot should have shut of a valve that would have prevented the fire from spreading.