Brazil’s Airports Remain Under Threat from Recurring Balloon Incidents

A balloon launched by individuals fell this Sunday onto a parked Azul plane at Santos Dumont airport in Rio de Janeiro.

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With a banner in honor of Mother’s Day, the yellow object flew over an Azul Airbus A320neo, registration PR-YRS, which has a special paint job in support of the Pink October breast cancer prevention campaign.

According to our associated media in Brazil, Aeroin, the aircraft was parked at the Rio de Janeiro airport refueling for a flight to Recife. The balloon ended up rolling over the fuselage of the aircraft and fell onto the left side, where it was intercepted by the airport’s firefighters, who put out the fire that had just started.

In these videos published on social media, you can see the moment of the incident:

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Balão no aeroporto Santos Dumont ?‍♀ pic.twitter.com/JV4dlecp3z

— Sueli lei (@LeiSueli93109) May 14, 2023

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This is the second case in a few days involving balloons, Santos Dumont Airport, and an Azul aircraft. The first was on the 7th, shortly after an Embraer plane landed there, the same day that the company’s main airport, Campinas-Viracopos, was closed for a similar reason.

As a testament to the widespread ignorance that exists in the region about the dangers that these types of balloons pose to aviation, yesterday, a Brazilian federal congressman celebrated the illegal release of a balloon paying tribute to President Lula. It should be remembered that releasing balloons can cause deadly accidents and is a crime punishable by up to three years in prison in Brazil.

Unfortunately, this is a scourge suffered by many Latin American airports where communities have the habit of launching balloons to celebrate special dates such as Mother’s Day, New Year, or national holidays, without authorities having taken exemplary punitive measures so far.

See also: Colombia: balloon falls on an airport platform and catches fire near a 737