Copyright © 1996 Balloon Life. All rights reserved.
Statistics compiled by the insurance industry and National Transportation Safety Board show that the most frequent hazard in ballooning is the landing. Insurance company numbers further point to commercial balloon ride operations as generating a disproportionately high number of claims. It is this increase in claims that is sited as the primary factor in insurance rate increases for commercial ride operations.
In this special report, Balloon Life spoke with insurance company executives, balloon manufacturers and ride operators to get their ideas for safer flights.
Why are there so many claims? Insurance company representatives often blame the pressure to produce income as a leading factor in flights into marginal weather. Those flights can result in hard landings, usually in windy conditions. Pressure to produce income, however, may only be the immediate symptom of an underlying problem.
Finances aside, it is the attitude of the individual balloon business which has a greater impact on safe operations. Risk in any business is ever present. If it weren’t, there wouldn’t be any need for insurance. What makes some operations more prone to situations that could lead to injuries while others are not as prone to these same situations?
Among those people with which Balloon Life spoke, the attitude which seems to have the largest positive impact on safety is professionalism. Maybe a better term would be good business sense. Selling rides to the public, after all, is a business. As one person suggested, treat the balloon ride business—even if it is a mom-and-pop weekend operation—as if you were running a small airline.
Let’s set up a small airline and consider some of the areas where we can enhance operations safety. First item—the equipment. What kind of balloon do you want to fly? Tom Reussé, Insurance Marketing Center, says most balloons are not designed for rough landings with passengers.
When landing with speed, the balloon contacts the ground and bounces a few times. What is going to happen? In an automobile accident, if you are not wearing your seat belt, you become a human missile. The same thing takes place in the balloon basket. People start bouncing around.
The 250-pound man who slams into a 90-pound child can do some damage. Ankles can easily be cracked or broken when contact between occupants is made. Reussé sites many of the AX-7, -8, and -9 balloons with their open baskets as potential problems. They do not provide for passenger separation and often have sharp edges and hard surfaces, such as tanks, that people might come in contact with.
In recent years many of the balloon manufacturers have designed baskets which are compartmentalized, have extra padding and hand holds for the passengers. By separating the passengers in the basket from each other and the pilot, there is less chance of injury or bodily collision.
Reussé would like to see the passengers protected more. Place them in as much of a cocoon environment as possible. This entails padding in the basket, having non-skid floors and putting away non-essential equipment such as camcorders.
One balloon ride owner says that, “Good equipment in good condition is an important factor. Maintenance is very important. You don’t want to use the equipment down to its last dying breath. That includes not only the balloon but also the vehicle, fan and other support items.”
Along with good, safe equipment it is important to get the balloon down and stopped as quickly as possible. The more jarring the landing, the more bounces across the field, the greater the risk of injury becomes.
This leads us to the passengers themselves (see the accompanying box for more on passenger briefings). The experience of passengers can play an important role in safety. For the most part, the rider is just that—a rider. A person who has paid money with the expectation that their capable pilot will deliver them safely back to Mother Earth. In making the go, no-go decision, the pilot needs to consider the experience of the passenger.
The problem here is that when the passengers are inexperienced, they do not know what to expect or how to react when the balloon comes in for a fast landing. Marginal weather, read marginal wind, sited earlier as a leading cause of insurance claims, is marginal for who? The pilot has many hours of experience and has gained confidence in his or her ability over time to land the balloon in a variety of conditions. The pilot knows what to expect and do in 15 mph winds. Everybody else on board is in for a surprise.
One ride company operator’s recommendation with regards to passengers is never let them touch a piece of equipment. Always have enough crew. Passengers will want to help. Don’t let them. Tell them to take pictures and enjoy the experience. You don’t know what they can do and can’t, their capability in lifting heavy objects and you don’t want their finger in the fan cage.
Making that decision to fly or not is the most important of all. Every large ride company that Balloon Life spoke with said that the most important element is to have good, safe, experienced pilots. For it is the pilot who will make the judgement to fly or not.
Although a few balloon companies pay their pilots a salary, most ride pilots do not get any money unless the balloon flies. In thinking about this operation as a business, it can be as important not to fly as to fly. From a long term perspective, increasing insurance costs later will cut in to the profit margin.
One sentiment echoed by a number of ride operators is, “I would rather have riders mad at me for not flying than mad at me for putting them in the hospital.”
Another idea is to use a safety review board. Have a representative from your balloon manufacturer, an insurance company executive and a ride competitor to serve on this panel. Yes, a business competitor. These people met once a year and go for a balloon ride with your company. They can make recommendations on how to improve the operation. You can this one step further and give the review board the authority to shut your business down if they felt the operation was not safe.
That may seem like overkill but you can get some great ideas from these people. Bring in your competitors, especially if they fly a different brand of balloon. They can give you some new, safe, good ideas.
Many of the practices of operations around the country include paying attention to detail. Following are some standards others follow in running their business to make it more professional:
One more area in which the insurance companies would like to see an improvement is in reporting any mishaps right away. Treat every accident/incident as a serious one. Let the insurance company know about any potential problems right away.
Call it, “afraid-to-let-anybody-know-there-was-a-problem-so-my-rates-don’t-come- up-itis.” Insurance companies report that pilots don’t keep them informed. Sometime after the incident, the pilot gets a phone call from the injured party wanting the pilot’s insurance information. The pilot doesn’t give them any information and hangs up. Now the passenger is angry and hires a lawyer. By the time the insurance company is notified, what may have been handled quickly and with the least cost is a major expense.
The image that a balloon ride operation projects and the attitude of the personnel engaged in that business ultimately are a large factor in the operation’s safety. But even more important, flying in marginal weather may be a symptom of a marginal operation.
Passenger Briefing Tips