Regulations need review after balloon crash
No one expects a leisurely Saturday morning pastime to result in horrific tragedy, especially when that activity is subject to standards set by the Federal Aviation Administration — the agency that regulates all airborne craft.
But for 16 people and their families, the unthinkable occurred when one such aircraft, a hot air balloon, hit a power line early Saturday, caught fire and crashed in Caldwell County south of Austin, killing all on board, including 15 passengers and the operator.
Most of us assume that balloon rides carry limited risk, a feeling the statistics appear to support.
According to the Balloon Federation of America, as many as half a million people ride in hot air balloons each year in the U.S., and only a relative few number of launches result in accidents.
Between 1964 and 2016, the National Transportation Safety Board investigated about 800 incidents, 71 involving fatalities.
But last weekend’s crash — the most deadly involving a hot air balloon in U.S. history — has raised important questions about the level of safety requirements for hot air balloon operators.
According to Deborah Hersman, former NTSB chairwoman, a series of balloon crashes, several of them deadly, prompted the board to send the FAA a letter in 2014 that urged the agency to address “operational deficiencies” in the industry.
One proposed safety upgrade would have required that balloon operators be subject to the same requirements as commercial plane and helicopter operators, such as maintaining a letter of authorization, which would improve oversight by periodic surveillance checks to ensure flights are being conducted properly.
Hersman told CNN during an interview Saturday that the FAA did not adopt the suggested safety measures, and instead argued that the measures would not result in significantly greater operational safety.
Federal rules already require commercial operators to have their balloons inspected annually or after every 100 hours of operations, causing some in the industry to wonder what more they could do to improve the safety of their craft.
NTSB investigators are still trying to determine the cause of this weekend’s tragic crash; weather conditions or pilot error are often to blame and are the likely causes in this case.
It’s unclear if enhanced regulations, such as those proposed in Hersman’s letter, would have prevented Saturday’s deadly incident.
But in the wake of an aviation tragedy of this scale, a review of existing standards and further consideration of those suggested by the NTSB seems to be a worthy and much-needed exercise.
This story was originally published August 1, 2016 at 5:08 PM with the headline "Regulations need review after balloon crash."