The news of the accident of an overcrowded balloon that killed a woman on Sunday (15) in Capela do Alto (SP), after leaving Iperó (SP), 130 kilometers from the state capital, is one of those announced tragedies, directly linked to informality, improvisation and irresponsibility that permeate many self -adventure entrepreneurs. Carrying 35 people in a basket that would hold a maximum of 24, the driver was arrested in the act and indicted for manslaughter aggravated by the irregular exercise of the activity and operating air equipment without proper certification.
Legal language aside, the summary of history would be, as far as it is known so far: the citizen assumed the risk of killing those passengers who had no obligation to know that their qualification was overcome, as the president of the Brazilian Ballooning Confederation, Johnny Silva, informed. Nor did imagine that he accumulated four notifications for non-compliance with current health standards during the Covid-19 pandemic (when increased demand for nature sports had exponential growth, but often on the margins of legality). And most importantly, that he was not allowed to take passengers on his equipment, but only to make individual flights – how if anyone had a cloth of that size stored in the backyard to climb the air alone.
Is it ingenious that you call? Or deliberate blindness of who should oversee?
As soon as the accident was released, the City of Boituva (SP), a city neighboring the accident that that weekend received a ballooning championship, announced that it was determining a series of “administrative measures to prevent future accidents”. Among them, “the notification of all ballooning companies to send updated documents, the publication of a draft regulating the aerotourism in the municipality” and the opening of a public consultation portal, “which will make available registered companies and time forecasting”.
They are also planned, as Folha reported, “a municipal bill to regulate the boituva aerotourism, the creation of an online portal with the official list of authorized ballooning companies and a meteorological forecasting model with flag system to ascertain the conditions and permissions for flight.”
It would be to imagine that these measures were already ostentatious for those who make a point of boasting the title of national capital of skydiving and tourist balloon, no? If, as the saying goes, later late than ever, this serves as little consolation to the victim’s family, Juliana Alves Prado, who died at 27 without knowing that she should charge the pilot’s license and check the registration of the equipment whose flight was openly offered to the first unwary to appear. It is hard to imagine that an artifact of that size, beautifully colored and flying over the skies not from a remote corner of the country, but from the interior of São Paulo, went unnoticed to those responsible.
“The accident highlights an old problem in adventure tourism in Brazil: the combination of informality, illegality and low qualification, which puts lives at risk,” says Luiz del Vigna, executive director of Abeta (Brazilian Association of Ecotourism and Adventure Tourism Companies). “Activities such as balloon flights are safe only when they rigorously follow rules and legislation, but many providers ignore basic rules and operate without security management system,” he adds.
Del Vigna’s warning is not coming from today. For years the Association has hit the key of the importance of seeking professionalization and responsible technical qualification of professionals involved in all areas of adventure tourism.
“The expectation for the closure of 2025 in the tourism sector is positive, projecting a rise of 3.8%, and revenues of R $ 211 billion according to the Tourism Council of the Federation of Commerce of Goods, Services and Tourism of the State of São Paulo,” says Del Vigna. But in parallel, he cites the evaluation of Dieese (Intersindical Department of Statistics and Socioeconomic Studies), that the informality rate in the creative economy sector, where tourism fits, reached an impressive 42.2% in 2024.
“Informality can solve an immediate income generation problem, but it does not create a development business structure that supports the sector, leading to illegality and poor technical training,” says the executive.
With the informality of those who want entrepreneurs in a lawless land, sustainability was lacking in the Iperó balloon.
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