Hot air ballooning balloon accidents are rare, according to statistics from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The first clearly recorded instance of a balloon carrying passengers used hot air to generate buoyancy and was built by the brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier in Annonay, France. After experimenting with unmanned balloons and flights with animals, the first "tethered" balloon flight with humans on board took place on October 19, 1783 with the scientist Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, the manufacture manager, Jean-Baptiste Réveillon and Giroud de Villette, at the "Folie Titon" in Paris. The first "free" flight with human passengers was on November 21,
Alabama Jubilee Hot Air Balloon Classic Alabama Legislature to designate the City of Decatur as the “Ballooning Capital of Alabama.” The Jubilee has been named a Top 20 Tourism Event in the Southeast for May by the Atlanta-based Southeast Tourism Society. The Alabama Jubilee is held on the grounds of Point Mallard Park, a municipal recreation complex that offers a water park featuring an aquatic center with a wave pool, Olympic-sized swimming pools, lazy river, and several water slides, as well as tennis courts, ball fields, hiking trails, campground, 18-hole championship golf course, indoor ice skating rink and recreation center. Alabama Jubilee Hot Air Balloon Classic