Just an observation from the posts on this thread, since I don't have any of the source documents to hand. However.....
Genghis' statement that ballooning is "about as safe as it gets" is based on fatal accidents. RevMan's figures from the NTSB appear (correct me if I'm wrong, RevMan) to be based on accidents, not specifically on fatal accidents.
I don't know a whole lot about ballooning, but it doesn't strike me as a sport which involves very high speeds. Therefore, is it plausible that it does have a high accident rate, both in the US and the UK, but that the low speeds involved mean that the vast majority of these accidents are not fatal?
FFF
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