According to one recent review of the data from Turkey's Directorate General of Civil Aviation, there were 12 accidents in flight hours examined between summer 2013 and 2017 in the Cappadocia region. Three people lost their lives in these accidents, all of which occurred during the landing phase of the flight.

While hot air ballooning in regions like Cappadocia is remarkably safe given the volume of flights, statistics for 2026 indicate that accidents are rare but not non-existent. On average, Turkey sees between 1 and 3 "serious" incidents per year involving hot air balloons, ranging from hard landings to occasional collisions or power line contacts. However, it is important to put this in perspective: in Cappadocia alone, over 500,000 passengers fly annually across approximately 30,000 individual flights. The Turkish Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) enforces some of the world's strictest "flight/no-fly" regulations, often grounding the entire fleet for days if wind speeds exceed 11 km/h. Most "crashes" reported in the media are actually "hard landings" caused by sudden thermal shifts during the final descent, which may result in minor bumps or bruises rather than catastrophic failure. Because the industry is a vital pillar of Turkish tourism, safety protocols—including mandatory pilot rest periods and GPS tracking for every basket—are continuously updated to maintain one of the best safety records in global aerial tourism.