Passenger Safety
This month our Special Report examines passenger safety. Balloon Life spoke with a number of balloon ride operators from around the country, insurance industry representatives, and balloon manufacturers to get their ideas on how to best protect passengers.
As a sidebar to Safety is as Safety Does, Pete Carter discusses some passenger types that you might want to avoid in Know Your Passengers. Glen Moyer, Special Reports Editor, calls it a preview of potentially party-pooping passengers the pragmatic pilot should prepare for.
These people, as defined, are pretty easy to spot up front. More troubling, however, are those potential problem passengers that can cause trouble in the air. Although most of my balloon flying has been for pleasure I have had the opportunity over the last couple of years to pilot ride balloons. I have had some interesting situations.
The first was people with real acrophobia. We have all taken up people who wouldn’t stand at the railing of a high balcony but, the balloon flight didn’t bother them at all. They may feel more uncomfortable as the balloon goes higher. I call this Tommy’s center of the basket theory: the higher you go the closer to the center of the basket everyone gets.
In each of the real acrophobia cases the individual was with friends and family. people who were able to comfort and attend to the needs of the person in stress. In each case, when flying at lower altitudes, their fear subsided. Although none of these people became hysterical the potential is there and a plan is necessary to deal with it. Interviewing your passengers for a potential problem before the flight will help alert you to any potential problems in the air.
The second problem passenger I’ll call the practical joker. At 4,000 feet a man decided he was going to show his date how safe the balloon was. He started jumping up and down on the woven basket floor—vigorously. His date was not impressed. Less impressed were the other passengers who dealt with the problem before I needed to intercede. Lots of passengers are fun loving souls. It is rare to find someone who will get their thrills by scaring others but you need to be aware that they exist and be on guard for actions they might take.
The third experience I had was a real surprise. While on short final to a landing site a passenger apparently panicked. The balloon was moving at approximately 3-4 knots, we were landing to a softball field completely surrounded by trees, and using a drop line to assist with the landing. The line was deployed at an altitude of 100 feet and we were descending nicely for a soft landing. At a height of 25 feet, or more, one passenger leaped up on the side rail and started to jump. My right hand is on the burner and the left on the red line. He was closest to my left hand so I let go of the red line, grabbed a handful of his shirt, and planted him firmly in the bottom of the basket. Because he was going out the upwind side and everybody else was facing forward I do not believe that anyone besides my crew chief and I knew what took place, including his date.
I don’t know why the passenger decided to act as he did. I was not able to get him alone after the flight to discuss his behavior. If he had jumped we would have gone out of that site at over 600 feet per minute. There was nothing tricky about the landing.
As pilot in command we not only have to fly the aircraft but manage our passengers as well. Being aware of their behavior and reacting quickly is as important as flying the balloon.
Table of Contents