Flames consume motor homes at the Hazelmere trailer park after a hot air balloon, its basket engulfed in flames, crashed there shortly after takeoff on Aug. 24, 2007. (Don Randall/AP/Canadian Press)

The B.C. government is using a new piece of legislation that allows it to recover medical expenses to sue the pilot and others involved in a fiery balloon crash that killed two people and injured several others.

In August 2007, 11 people jumped from the balloon when it burst into flames, snapped its tether and started floating away. It eventually fell back to earth in a ball of fire that engulfed a Surrey trailer park.

According to the lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court, at least four people who jumped from the balloon suffered serious injuries, including a brain injury, burns and broken bones.

The province is suing a number of third parties to recover the passengers' health-care costs. Among those named in the lawsuit are the pilot, Stephen Pennock, the businesses SRP Adventure Tours, Fantasy Balloon Charters, Aerostar International, Raven Industries, Doug Scott Aircraft, and the Attorney General of Canada.

The government claims Pennock didn't maintain the balloon, didn't do safety checks and wasn't properly trained to fly. The company that manufactured the balloon, meanwhile, is alleged to have produced a "dangerous and defective product," and the government is alleged to have not conducted the proper inspections.

A Transportation Safety Board report issued in September 2008 found the balloon had numerous safety problems, including a modification it had undergone to enable it to hold a fourth propane tank.

Recovery Act nets $3.2M so far

The province filed the lawsuit under the Health Care Costs Recovery Act, a one-year-old piece of legislation the government has been using frequently to go after third parties it believes to be negligent.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Health said 360 such cases are opened each month, and so far, the government has recovered more than $3 million in health care costs.

"Lawyers and insurers are obligated to notify the government any time a lawsuit is launched where costs were incurred by our health care system because of possible third-party wrongdoing," the ministry said in a statement,

"The ministry may then join the action to ensure that our right to recover the health-care costs is preserved. The ministry can also launch its own action if deemed appropriate."