Australian Ballooning

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LAST UPDATED 8th SEPTEMBER 2009

A	B	C
Aussie Balloontrek	Balloon Adventures	Cloud 9 Balloon Flights - New South Wales
Australian Ballooning Federation	Balloon Aloft Australia
Avon Valley Balloning	Balloon Aloft Canberra
	Balloon Aloft Gold Coast
	Balloon Aloft Hunter Valley
	Balloon Aloft Sydney
	Balloon Downunder
	Balloon Flights of Bendigo
	Balloon Joy Flights
	Balloon Sunrise
	Ballooning Downunder
	Balloons Above
	Balloons Over Brisbane
	Balloon Aloft
	Balloon Sunrise
	Balloon Flights of Bendigo
	Byron Bay Ballooning
	Bendigo Ballooning
D	E	F
Dawn Drifters Canberra
G	H	I
Goldrush Ballooning  Adelaide and Bendigo	Hot Air Balloon Flights S.E.Qld
Global Ballooning	Hot Air Balloon Rides - Cairns - Port Douglas - Gold Coast
Go Wild Ballooning	Hot Air Balooning .org
	Hunter Valley Ballooning
J	K	L
	Kavanagh Balloons
M	N	O
Mildura Ballooning		Outback Ballooning
P	Q	R
S	T	U
V	W	XYZ
	Windward Balloon Adventures

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Hot Air Balloon Accidents

Hot Air Ballooning is an adventure activity. Modern training systems and balloon technology mean that it is relatively uncommon for people to be injured in a hot air balloon accident but ballooning will always be an adventure and like all adventures carries a level of risk.

In this article the terms accident and incident are used to refer to the occurence outcomes. An incident is defined as any event during which the safety of the aircraft or its occupants are at risk including those events where a person may have sustained a minor injury which did not require medical attention or the aircraft might have sustained minor damage. An accident is defined as an event where a person or persons sustain serious or fatal injuries or the aircraft sustains serious damage.

Accident / Incident Types

Balloon accidents and incidents occur for a variety of reasons. Like most activities, human error is frequently mentioned as a primary causal factor in reports. In the hot air ballooning environment it is often very difficult to distinguish between human error and weather related factors. There were no occurences in the review data where an incident or accident was attributed to failure of the balloon hardware.

 

Statistics

A review of hot air balloon accidents and incidents in the USA, Australia and United Kingdom was conducted in late 2009. Selected results of this review are shown in graphical form below.

 

 

Analysis

The review established a number of key points in relation to balloon accidents and incidents.

• As a pilot gains experience they are statisticallly less likely to be involved in an accident.
• Pilots with low levels of command experience are many times more likely to be involved in incidents than more experienced pilots.
• If a more experienced pilot has an occurence it is more likely to be an accident rather than an incident.
• Pilots 600 - 800 hours command experience are more likely to be involved in an accident than pilots with less experience.
• Approximately 80% of fatal injuries are the result of a fall following a wire strike.

Australia had an overall lower accident rate of 13.07 accidents / 100,000 hours flying activity than did the USA at 33.62 or UK at 21.76.

Observations

Large Balloon Operations: In many parts of the world large passenger carrying balloons which carry up to 32 passengers are in common use. There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that where these larger balloons are used without a rigerous licencing regime the accident rate is many times higher than those in the more developed aviation environments.

In Australia, where there is a long established pilot licencing scheme the accident rate is significantly lower than in other countries but 16+ passenger balloons still accounted for 80% of all balloon accidents in 2008-2009.

Beware the BIG balloon!