CHI90LA225 · Cameron N120
Cameron N120 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during landing
From Elkhart, IN to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI90LA225
- 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
Cameron N120
- Aircraft type
- Cameron N120
- 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
- N6092K
- Operator
- Jay A. Krull · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Elkhart, INTo 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
- 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 collision with terrain/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Overconfidence in personal ability
- Pilot in command › Proper descent rate, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE BALLOON FLIGHT WAS LAUNCHED IN HIGH WINDS. DURING THE FLIGHT THE BALLOON ENCOUNTERED LOW ALTITUDE WIND SHEAR. WHILE APPROACHING TO LAND THE WIND SHEAR AND HIGH WIND SPEED STILL PREVAILED AND CAUSED THE BALLOON TO DESCEND RAPIDLY. THE BALLOON PILOT STATED THAT HE WAS UNABLE TO SLOW THE DESCENT SUFFICIENTLY DUE TO LOW PROPANE FUEL PRESSURE FOR THE BALLOONS BURNER. THE BALLOON BASKET COLLIDED WITH THE GROUND DURING A HARD LANDING TOUCHDOWN. ONE PASSENGER WAS SERIOUSLY INJURED AS A RESULT OF THE HARD LANDING.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN A PROPER DECENT RATE DURING LANDING AND HIS DECISION TO INITIATE THE FLIGHT IN HIGH WINDS CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI90LA225
- Event ID
- 20001212X23947
- Case number
- CHI90LA225
- 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 1990-08-27.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 6af5ddab0f9b388fdb1f7629f3798c35ecf6ea527e90ea862e3e4dc668c3f0e2; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:37:16.268Z.