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DEN92LA069 · Raven S-60A

2 Jul 1992 · Pecos, NM, United States

Raven S-60A · Accident: in flight encounter with weather during landing

From Santa Fe, NM (no airport) to No airport

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Event

NTSB case
DEN92LA069
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
0 · 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

Raven S-60A

Aircraft type
Raven S-60
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
N4211V
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Santa Fe, NM (no airport)To No airport
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
Landing · flare/touchdown
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 encounter with weather
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
None

Cause areas

  • Weather condition › High wind

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE PILOT HAD OBTAINED THREE WEATHER BRIEFINGS - AT 2000, 0447, AND 0705 - FOR A DEPARTURE OF BETWEEN 0700 AND 0730. EACH INDICATED THE WEATHER CONDITIONS WOULD BE SUITABLE FOR BALLOON FLYING. HOWEVER, SURFACE WINDS WERE FORECAST TO BE 15 KTS GUSTING 25 AFTER 1000. AS THE BALLOON LIFTED OFF, A GUST OF WIND WAS ENCOUNTERED, AND THE PILOT ELECTED TO CLIMB IMMEDIATELY TO 1,000 FT. THE PILOT SIGHTED A SUITABLE LANDING AREA AND DESCENDED THROUGH ROTOR WINDS AND LEVELED OFF AT 30 FT. SPEED WAS ESTIMATED AT 25 MPH. ON TOUCHDOWN, THE BASKET TIPPED FORWARD. A PASSENGER WAS EJECTED AND SERIOUSLY INJURED WHEN THE BASKET WAS DRAGGED OVER HER.

Probable cause

AN ENCOUNTER WITH HIGH WINDS.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record DEN92LA069
Event ID
20001211X15132
Case number
DEN92LA069
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, damage. 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: 5426df55c77a53461ff617022d267e50d45967012aed68d5ba462b27fb5f8cd7; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:52:48.656Z.