Hot-Air Balloon Tour Accidents in the Cappadocia Region

BACKGROUND: The incidence of hot-air balloon tour accidents in Turkey is not clear, as published data are scarce. This study aimed to determine the rate of such accidents, including passenger fatalities and injuries, across all flight hours and to also compare these types of accidents to those of other commercial air tour crashes.

METHODS: Hot-air balloon tour accident reports in the Cappadocia region were analyzed for 1,415,943 passengers during 81,112 flight hours undertaken between August 2013 and July 2017. The flight and accident data were obtained from the Accident Investigation Board and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

RESULTS: There were 12 accidents which occurred during the flight hours examined (a rate of 14.8 accidents per 100,000 h). There were 33 individuals seriously injured, 3 fatally in all passengers (3.7 fatalities per 100,000 h in these flights). The majority of accidents that produced serious and fatal injuries occurred during the last year of the study. The most common cause of accidents was a hard landing (58.3%). All accidents occurred during the landing phase of the flight. Seven patients experienced multiple traumas and lower extremity injuries constituted the majority of cases (N = 21).

DISCUSSION: The fatality rate of commercial balloon rides was lower than that for lighter-than-air craft, which include balloons and blimps (sports aviation flights), and the crash rate of hot-air balloons was higher than those of aircraft (airplanes and helicopters) tour flights. However, there is still insufficient information in the literature to properly compare this activity with commercial motorized aircraft tours and other hot-air balloon flights.

Aslaner MA. Hot-air balloon tour accidents in the Cappadocia region. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2019; 90(2):123–127.