Federal Aviation Administration Gives a Big Boost to Bungee Jumpers

No longer up in the air about bungee jumping from a hot-air balloon, the Federal Aviation Administration has ended months of indecision by taking a position that seems to virtually guarantee a boom in the sport.

In a recent memorandum, the FAA decided not to regulate the sport, only the balloons, clearing the way for balloonists to keep their craft certified and still jump from them on elastic bungee cords.

Before the new policy, if balloonists wanted to go bungee jumping, they were forced to decommission their balloons and moor them to the earth, which meant that the craft could no longer be used for flying. Only a handful of balloon operators around the country chose to ground their ballons for the sake of bungee jumping.

“But now there’s going to be a heckuva lot more balloonists involved,” said Dave Barlia, co-owner of Cowabungee, one of a half-dozen bungee-jumping businesses in Southern California. “There’s such a huge market out there.”

In the 1980s, bungee jumping was a cult sport for daredevils who ignored the dangers and illegality of leaping off a bridge in the dead of the night. But about a year or so ago, bungee jumpers discovered hot-air balloons; more importantly, they discovered that the FAA had no specific regulations against using a moored, decommissioned balloon for bungee jumping.

But the balloon operators were nervous about doing business in the gray area of the law. Without the FAA’s blessing, they couldn’t get insurance or real legitimacy. They pressed the FAA to certify their balloons if the craft’s modifications for bungee jumping met certain standards. But the agency was less than decisive, according to balloon operators.

“We were getting the runaround for months,” says Christine Warren of Adrenaline Adventures in Colorado. “They must have come out with 10 different memos saying, ‘This is our policy.’ They changed their minds every day.”

But in a six-paragraph memorandum dated May 30, the FAA’s Flight Standards Service made what bungee-jumping backers hope is the final decision. The memorandum provides “guidance” to regional managers for what is referred to as “the thrill-seeking sport of bungee jumping.” It basically concludes, said FAA spokesman Paul Steucke, “that we don’t care if balloonists go sightseeing, lift logs or do bungee jumping. We just want to make sure the balloon is safe to operate.”

To be certified airworthy, a balloon modified for bungee jumping must be checked periodically by a qualified engineer or FAA representative, sort like having a car inspected. “If you drill holes in something, sometimes you affect the structural integrity,” said Mike Sacrey, acting director of Flight Standards. “We don’t want the bottom falling out of the gondola.”

The FAA is asking, but not requiring, balloon operators to use at least two lines to anchor their craft--as opposed to floating free and jumping from high altitude--and a platform from which to jump also is optional.

But the FAA has made it clear that it is not going to inspect the actual bungee-jumping equipment, pleasing the sport’s activists. “We don’t want the FAA to regulate us because we can do it within the sport,” said Nancy Frase, chairwoman of the International Assn. of Bungee Enthusiasts. The new policy, she said, “is extremely fair and extremely lenient.”

By encouraging balloonists to certify their craft, the FAA will be keeping tighter reins on safety. “The standards for a decommissioned balloon are a lot less rigorous,” Frase says. She urged participants to look before they leap and check to see if the balloon being used is FAA-certified.

Bungee jumping, say its advocates, is safer than sky diving and other risky sports. No one in the United States has been killed, nor have any serious injuries been reported. But with the anticipated rise in the sport’s popularity because of the FAA’s new position, it may only be a matter of time before somebody is hurt or killed, “and when that happens, we can expect a lot of governmental agencies” to try to regulate the sport, said Ricco Nel, founder of the American Bungee Assn. and president of California Bungee.

To preclude this possibility, at least two fledgling groups have plunged into the business of protecting, organizing, setting standards, promoting and regulating the sport: Nel’s ABA in Huntington Beach and the Washington-based IABE. Neither considers the other a rival.

Aside from balloons, there are other legal and quasi-legal ways for bungee jumpers to satisfy their needs.

Towers and cranes, which aren’t under FAA jurisdiction or at the mercy of the wind like hot-air balloons, are increasing in popularity.

Cowabungee, operating in the Antelope Valley, just acquired a 30-ton crane, which hoists jumpers on a platform to a height of 212 feet. California Bungee is planning to open a crane and balloon operation at a yet-to-determined site in L.A.