Professor Piccard's stratosphere balloon destroyed by fire before experimental flight. Professor Piccard's ?000 hot-air stratosphere balloon was destroyed by fire at the military airfield of Zellick [Zellik], near Brussels, as the professor and his assistant, M. Max Coayans, where about to go up for an experimental flight. Just as the bag was taking a lift and the basket was about to be attached, the bottom of the envelope caught fire and the fabric went up in a burst of flames. 50 soldiers who were clinging on to the ropes holding the bag to the ground ran for their lives. The accident is attributed to a fold which formed in the envelope and which was touched by the burner heating the air. Photo shows: Professor Piccard (centre background) and his assistant, M. Cosyns (centre foreground) as their balloon was about to go up in flames. The gas cylinders in the picture were used to feed the burners in the balloon. 25 May 1937