Doug Gantt has logged more than 12,000 hours carrying passengers who drift through the sky in a wicker basket tethered to a brightly colored balloon without any accidents.
But Gantt doesn’t take safety for granted and he advises anyone considering a balloon ride to ask questions about the pilot’s experience and the company’s license and safety record before climbing into the basket.
Balloon accidents are rare, but like many adventurous outings, they carry risk.
The that killed 16 people last month, the largest number of balloon fatalities in U.S. history, accounts for nearly half the 37 fatalities nationally since 2000, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
The Texas crash death toll eclipsed the six fatalities caused by a 1993 balloon crash near Aspen, the worst in U.S. history until the Texas crash.
Outdoor adventures — such as hot air balloon rides, whitewater rafting, back-country skiing, rock climbing and mountaineering — can end in disaster. But the rules governing those who provide those experiences in Colorado can be weak or non-existent.Two years before the July 30 Texas balloon tragedy, the National Transportation Safety Board criticized the Federal Aviation Administration’s oversight of commercial hot air balloon companies and urged the FAA to tighten regulations on hot air balloon operators.
Unlike commercial helicopter and airplane operators, which the FAA also oversees, to checks to verify pilots are appropriately certified and receive competency evaluations or that equipment is properly maintained and certified.
But when the NTSB sent a letter to the FAA recommending it stiffen safety requirements, the FAA replied making those changes “wouldn’t result in a significantly higher level of operational safety.”
The FAA has said that it is too early to determine what action — if any — it might take as a result of the Texas crash.
Gantt, who operates Balloon Rides of the Rockies and often speaks at balloon safety seminars, recommends consumers .
First on his list, check to see if the company is a member of Professional Ride Operators, a division of the Balloon Federation of America. Members must agree to operate under standards that exceed FAA requirements.
His other recommendations:
- Ask about the company’s safety record.
- Find out how many flight hours the assigned pilot has spent flying. Someone who claims to have 20 years experience may not have that many actual hours in a balloon.
- Check the basics. Ask to see a business license, a copy of the company’s insurance policy and pilot certificates.
Family-friendly fun
Unlike rock climbing and other extreme outdoor activities, both balloon rides and white water rafting trips attract parents with young children who are looking for a low-risk adventure.
But Colorado has that stipulate appropriate ages for intermediate or expert rafting trips, high water flow or when rafts are loaded too lightly. There’s also no law that requires rafting guides to have radio or satellite phone communication.
Companies such as Raft Masters set age guidelines that fluctuate with water levels. The company also equips its rafts with radios, said Dennis Wied, company owner.
“Emergency communications are really valuable. The problem you have is there are a lot of areas where radio or cell phone is not feasible,” Wied said.
Commercial rafting companies carried 508,728 rafters on Colorado rivers in 2015, according to the Colorado River Outfitters Association.
Since 2010, 19 people have died on regulated, guided rafting trips, said Matt Robbins, spokesman for the Division of Parks and Wildlife, which oversees commercial outfitters.
In the past 27 years, Wied estimates his company has carried about 250,000 people. Three died after falling into the water and in each case that person had an underlying health problem that led to a fatal heart attack, he said.
The typical fatal rafting accident involves someone who is out-of-shape, has an underlying medical condition and is unaccustomed Colorado’s altitude, Wied said.
But even the fittest can drown in rushing river water.
Wied remembers an 18-year-old rafting guide who died while swimming because her foot got trapped under a rock.
“No reputable rafting outfitter will say that rafting is 100 percent safe,” said Wied.
His recommendations for taking a safe trip:
- Talk to potential rafting companies about the age, size and any rafting experience of group members.
- Be honest about abilities. “If you aren’t in shape, admit it to yourself. If being in a boat for two hours is going to be more than you can handle, don’t ask for that,” Wied said.
- Look for a rafting outfitter who has been under current ownership for some length of time. “I don’t care how old the company is, frequently there is a big dynamic shift when the ownership changes,” Wied said.
- Ask about guide training. Find out if guides have CPR training and medical equipment.
- Ask if the company has had any fatalities. But know any company that has been in business for a lengthy period will probably have one or more fatalities, Wied said.
Extreme adventures
The U.S. Forest Service and other land management agencies provide special permits that allow guides for mountaineering, back-country skiing and rock and ice climbing to operate on land they oversee. But most states, including Colorado, don’t regulate guides for any of those services, said Alex Kosseff, executive director of the American Mountain Guides Association in Boulder.
“Essentially anyone can hang out their shingle as a guide,” said Kosseff, who heads the non-profit that offers training courses and certification exams for rock climbing, mountaineering and alpine skiing.
“There are guides who learned on their own, who are very good, but there is just no standard.”
Kosseff recommends asking what kind of training or certification the guide has in climbing or skiing so the consumer can be confident the guide has the skills needed to use complex rope systems, be aware of avalanche safety and know how to extricate people from a crevasse when hiking on glaciers.
In addition to determining a guide’s technical skills, Steve Banks, director of mountain guide operations for Irwin Guides in Crested Butte, recommends finding out what kind of medical training the guide has completed.
Irwin requires its guides to take week-long wilderness first-responder courses and many guides are EMTs, he said.
According to the American Alpine Club, from 1951 through 2014, there were 934 accidents connected to mountaineering, rock climbing and back-country skiing in Colorado that killed 240 people.
Kosseff said federal agencies often require formal training for jobs that entail risk, but he said his organization isn’t pushing for increased standards.
“We aren’t advocating for that requirement,” he said. “But we do believe consumers should be aware of what they are purchasing.”