Balloon crash survivor's moving tribute to his wife A memorial service will be held at the scene of the accident on Friday afternoon, attended by the governor of Luxor and the ambassadors of the countries of the tourists who died. The other dead included Hong Kong Chinese, Japanese, French and one Egyptian. Mohmin Murad, the pilot, suffered 70 per cent burns and is being treated at a separate hospital in Cairo from Mr Rennie, who is said to be physically fit but pschologically traumatised. Prosecution services and Egypt's civil aviation authorities are investigating the crash, though they have ruled out "foul play," and are speaking to Mr Rennie. The company whose balloon crashed, Sky Cruise, has a contract with a local travel firm, Bright Sky, who are agents for Thomas Cook. Other balloon companies have claimed that competition over costs had reduced prices to a level where safety standards suffered. Sky Cruise suffered another accident in 2011 in which a balloon crash landed on the Nile, hitting a boat. On that occasion, the Dutch and British passengers escaped with bruises. The manager of Bright Sky, Kamel Kordy, insisted that it paid 500 Egyptian pounds (about GBP50) per passenger to Sky Cruise, which is a rate agreed between the balloon companies. "This is the first time an incident has happened with our customers since we have dealt with Sky Cruise," he said. He said the Britons had all been booked on a flight the day before which had been cancelled due to strong winds. "Michael Rennie and his wife insisted on taking the next day's flight," he said. "Michael said, "I mainly came her for the balloon ride."" A Thomas Cook spokesman said: "We insist that the local companies that offer hot-air balloon excursions to our guests in Luxor are fully licensed by the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority. We, like all other major tour operators, rely upon this endorsement. Tharwat Agami, head of the Luxor Chamber of Tourism, blamed a culture of lax inspection by the Civil Aviation Authority, which is responsible for licensing the balloons and has inspectors on hand every morning before the flights. Mr Agami said the incident happened because the tether rope cut off the gas hose. "These hoses have a life span and if they had checked the parts seriously such an incident would not have happened," he said. Getting pilot licences is too easy and we hear about people getting them because of their personal contacts. We didn't witness such accidents when pilots and engineers came from abroad. The industry was founded by British balloon pilots in the 1980s and 1990s, but British companies were eventually forced to sell out to their Egyptian partners. In 2009, all flights were halted after a series of minor accidents while safety procedures were tightened.