Texas hot air balloon crash: 'No survivors' after balloon carrying at least 16 crashes

The balloon caught fire and crashed in a field close to the town of Lockhart early on Friday morning

The aircraft's pilot, Skip Nichols, is among those killed (Facebook)

A hot air balloon carrying at least 16 people has caught fire and crashed in Central Texas, in what is thought to be the deadliest ballooning accident ever in the US.

Caldwell County Sheriff Daniel Law announced that there did not appear to be any survivors from the accident, and that the scene had been turned over to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

“Investigators are determining the number and the identities of victims at this time,” the Sheriff's Office said.

Lynn Lunsford of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement that the balloon, thought to be carrying 16 passengers and crew, came down in a field close to the town of Lockhart at around 7.40am on Saturday. A fire reportedly broke out in the basket of the balloon during the early morning flight. According to CNN, investigators believed the balloon had struck some power lines.

Agents from the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) headed to the scene on Saturday to investigate. Lockhart is about 30 miles south of Austin, the Texas state capital.

According to the NTSB, the highest number of fatalities in a single hot air balloon crash in the US before now was six, in an accident in Colorado in 1993. This is the second fatal hot air balloon accident in the US in 2016, the agency said.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott expressed his condolences, saying in a tweet: "May God's restorative strength and grace be with the families affected by the tragic hot air balloon crash."