Bill requires balloon pilot medical exams
Fatal Lockhart crash, lack of FAA action prompt measure
Nearly two years after the deadliest hot air balloon crash in U.S. history killed 16 people near Lockhart, the U.S. House voted Thursday to approve a measure that would mandate medical exams for commercial balloon pilots.
Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-San Antonio, said he wrote the legislation after the Federal Aviation Administration refused to strengthen regulations governing balloon pilots — even after investigators discovered that pilot Alfred “Skip” Nichols had suffered from medical ailments that should have raised red flags at the FAA before the deadly crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that Nichols had been on a cocktail of prescription drugs that included Prozac, Valium and the painkiller oxycodone when his balloon struck highvoltage power lines and caught fire July 30, 2016, killing everyone on board.
Unlike other aircraft pilots, balloon pilots aren’t required to undergo medical screenings.
“Since 2016, I have repeatedly urged the FAA to adopt a safety measure long recommended by the NTSB to help avert tragedies like this,” Doggett said during a speech Wednesday on the House floor.
As he displayed a large photograph of the charred wreckage of the wicker balloon basket found near Lockhart, Doggett said: “After that crash, this was all that was left.”
The House approved Doggett’s amendment to a bill that authorizes funding for the FAA.
Doggett said his amendment is a bipartisan measure that mirrors legislation in the Senate authored by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who is also calling for stronger regulations of balloon pilots.
If the House approves the entire funding bill Friday, lawmakers will iron out any differences with the Senate’s version of its own bill.
“I am just ecstatic,” said Patricia Morgan, a critic of the FAA whose daughter and granddaughter from San Antonio, Lorilee and Paige Brabson, both died in the balloon crash.
“I think at least we’re making some kind of headway,” Morgan said. “I just don’t want nothing to happen. That was my fear, that all those victims would have been forgotten.”
In a past statement, the FAA praised a voluntary program launched by the Balloon Federation of America, an industry trade group, that would require pilots to submit to drug and medical tests and safety seminars.
But pilots have to be willing to participate in the program. Before the crash, Nichols had let his membership lapse with the balloon federation.
NTSB board Chairman Robert Sumwalt criticized the FAA for “shirking its responsibility” to protect balloon passengers.
“They are abdicating their responsibility to provide oversight,” Sumwalt said.
Morgan and family members of other victims said they’re outraged by the lack of federal oversight of balloon pilots.
Despite the tranquil image of the balloon industry, hot air balloons aren’t any safer than other aircraft.
An investigation of the hot air balloon industry published last year by the San Antonio Express-News found that the balloons suffer similar fatality rates when compared with privately owned planes and helicopters.
And the overall crash rate is twice as high for balloons — 15 crashes per 100,000 flight hours, compared with seven crashes per 100,000 flight hours for other types of general aviation aircraft.
The NTSB primarily blamed the Lockhart crash on Nichols’ “poor” decision to fly in cloudy and foggy conditions with low visibility.
The NTSB concluded that Nichols’ medical ailments and medical prescriptions were a contributing cause of the crash, along with the FAA’s policy exempting commercial balloon pilots from medical screenings.