Baloteşti is a commune

Communes of Romania

A commune is the lowest level of administrative subdivision in Romania. There are 2686 communes in Romania. The commune is the rural subdivision of a county .There is no clear restriction on the population of a commune, even though when a commune...

 in the northwestern part of Ilfov County

Ilfov County

Ilfov is the county that surrounds Bucharest, the capital of Romania. It used to be largely rural, but after the fall of communism, many of the county's villages and communes developed into high-income commuter towns, which act like suburbs or satellites of Bucharest...

, Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

. Two small rivers flow through this location: Cociovaliştea

Cociovalistea River

The Cociovaliștea River is a tributary of the Vlăsia River in Romania.-References:* Administraţia Naţională Apelor Române - Cadastrul Apelor - București* Institutul de Meteorologie şi Hidrologie - Rîurile României - București 1971...

 and Vlăsia

Vlasia River (Ialomita)

The Vlăsia River is a tributary of the Ialomiţa River in Romania.-References:* Administraţia Naţională Apelor Române - Cadastrul Apelor - Bucureşti* Institutul de Meteorologie şi Hidrologie - Rîurile României - Bucureşti 1971...

. It is composed of three villages: Baloteşti, Dumbrăveni and Săftica.

The commune is named after an 18th century boyar

Boyar

A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....

, Balotă, who owned local lands.

On March 31, 1995, a TAROM

TAROM

S.C. Compania Națională de Transporturi Aeriene Române TAROM S.A., doing business as TAROM Romanian Air Transport, is the flag carrier and oldest currently operating airline of Romania. The brand name is an acronym for...

 Romanian Airbus A310

Airbus A310

The Airbus A310 is a medium- to long-range twin-engine widebody jet airliner. Launched in July 1978, it was the second aircraft created by Airbus Industrie,a consortium of European aerospace companies, Airbus is now fully owned by EADS and since 2001 has been known as Airbus SAS. the consortium of...

 crashed near Baloteşti, leaving 60 dead (see Tarom Flight 371

Tarom Flight 371

TAROM Flight 371 was an Airbus A310 that crashed near Baloteşti in Romania on 31 March 1995. It was a flight from Bucharest's main Otopeni airport to Brussels.The flight crashed shortly after it took off...

).