ATL99LA103 · Adams A55S
Adams A55S · Accident: fire while standing
From Alpharetta, GA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL99LA103
- 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
Adams A55S
- Aircraft type
- Adams A55
- 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
- N9808S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Alpharetta, GATo 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
- Standing
- 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
- Fire
- 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
- Fuel system, line fitting › Loose
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inspection, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that the balloon was carefully examined and assembled prior to flight and no mechanical problems were found. After 45 minutes of standing and ascending tether operations, the pilot's son noticed fire dripping from the fitting that connects the main fuel line to the burner assembly. After unsuccessfully trying to extinguish the fire, the pilot pushed his son from the balloon at ground level. The balloon then ascended rapidly to the extent of the 25 foot tethers. At that point, the pilot elected to jump from the balloon. After 15 to 20 minutes, the fire burned through the tether ropes releasing the balloon, which drifted unmanned for approximately one hour before descending and colliding with a single family dwelling. The balloon was destroyed. Examination of the fuel line fitting revealed a loose connection between the two threaded ends. According to the manufacturer of the fuel hose, it is produced for use in air conditioning applications and should never be used with LP gas.
Probable cause
A loose connection between the fuel line fitting and the burner assembly which resulted in a fire.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL99LA103
- Event ID
- 20001212X19149
- Case number
- ATL99LA103
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1999-07-04.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d0feda7db526889e0902748927e4c9843556953b2db8651e7d878c1fbbcfc293; retrieved 2026-09-21T10:57:19.164Z.