Worldwide there is very little information available about safety trends within the ballooning sport and industry. Balloon activity levels are not considered to be significant by most government departments so very few public resources are made available for safety improvement and research. All of the safety promotion materials that we have been able to locate for many years have been developed by sport or industry associations.
Brisbane Hot Air Ballooning has launched a global safety research project and has developed several research questionnaires for safety and occupational health matters that have been identified as issues for the ballooning community. The data obtained from these questionnnaires is used for safety promotion and trend analysis purposes only.
All balloonists whether sport, commercial, pilots or crew are encouraged to contribute to the data collection program. You can assist by completing all relevant questionnaires, by telling your clubs and associations about this research project and by encouraging your fellow balloonists to contribute to this project. All contributions can be made anonomously. If you contact details are provided we will only use them to contact you in relation to your responses or to advise of the release of new or updated report based in part on the data that you have contributed. We will never associate your name or details with any research results or make your contact details available to third parties.
Powerline Incidents
Powerlines are known to be the number one killer of balloonists but almost no data is available worldwide about the the circumstances surrounding strikes. Few government agencies investigate powerline incidents unless they result in a fatality. Through our research we are hoping to identify factors which can reduce the number of power line incidents and improve the outcomes when an incident does occur through better education.
Hearing Loss
This research project’s aim is to establish pilot attitudes and behaviours relating to the use of hearing protection such as headphones or ear plugs whilst ballooning and whether there is a statistically significant increase in hearing loss disorders amongst balloonists.
