A ride down a ski slope in a plastic ball turned fatal for one Russian tourist.

Denis Burakov, 27, and Vladimir Shcherbov, 33, each paid less than $10 to get inside the three-metre balloon, called a zorb, and travel a short course at the Dombay ski resort in southern Russia, Russia Today reported.

A video, taken by a friend of Burakov, shows the zorb bounce off a plowed track and employees running to stop the zorb before it bounds down a steep cliff, over a rock face and plunges into a creek.

Both men were alive when rescue crews reached them, Russia Today reported. Burakov died en route to hospital, the English-language paper said, and Shcherbov suffered a concussion as well as other minor injuries and is expected to survive.

A criminal investigation has been launched.

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