The , in which 19 people were killed after their balloon caught on fire, shot high into the air, and plummeted 1,000 feet to the ground, was indeed awful. But it was also extremely unusual: ballooning is an exceedingly safe activity, not to mention an amazingly peaceful and fun way to explore the countryside of some far-off place.
If you鈥檙e headed to Switzerland, the best ballooning destination is Chateau-d鈥橭ex in the Alps. Every January, this French-speaking town hosts the weeklong annual , which attracts hundreds of balloonists from around the world.聽
I went ballooning there once, and I had confidence in my pilots because I checked to make sure they were licensed by the Swiss federal office of civil aviation, Switzerland’s equivalent to the FAA. But the same standards don鈥檛 apply everywhere. In developed countries, you can generally expect that hot-air balloons and their pilots are held to rigorous standards. In developing countries, not so much. Just as you would thoroughly investigate a dive operator in a far-flung place, you should ask balloon outfitters about their .
Luckily, you’re pretty safe wherever you go, given the straightforward, elegant . If you run out of gas, or if there鈥檚 a hole in the balloon, you鈥檙e basically going to sink slowly back to the ground, not drop like a rock. The fire and resulting explosion on the balloon in Egypt was started, it appears, when a cable got tangled during landing, disconnecting a gas line and sparking a fire. Even if you make ballooning a habit, you’re not likely to see that kind of trouble.