FTW96FA063 · Balloon Works FIREFLY 7-15 FIREFLY 7-
Balloon Works FIREFLY 7-15 FIREFLY 7- · Accident: in flight collision with object en route
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW96FA063
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Balloon Works FIREFLY 7-15 FIREFLY 7-
- Aircraft type
- Balloon Works FIREFLY 7
- Category
- Balloon
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N25756
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route · cruise
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- In flight collision with object
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Wire, transmission
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Low altitude flight/maneuver, performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Witnesses observed the balloon drift across an interstate highway in level flight and impact a high voltage (138kV) power line. As the balloon's basket came into contact with the current carrying wires, 'a blinding blue-white flash of electricity' was followed by an explosion. The basket and envelope caught fire, and the balloon then ascended to 100 to 150 feet AGL before the suspension ropes burned through and the basket separated from the envelope. Examination revealed that one of the balloon's three propane tanks was ruptured and a dime-sized hole opposite the ruptured section appeared to be the result of arcing. Evidence of arcing was also noted on the skirt ring and the burner shield. Functional testing and disassembly of the burner revealed no evidence of any pre-impact mechanical discrepancies. Toxicological testing detected small amounts of fenfluramine and phentermine in the pilot's blood and liver fluid. Neither of these medications is approved by the FAA for use while flying.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain obstacle clearance during low altitude straight and level flight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW96FA063
- Event ID
- 20001207X04994
- Case number
- FTW96FA063
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a0d9b819614071ae0bba77f5f32dd811326fb7ca542271408eec493f61152868; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:30:05.454Z.