DEN90LA008 · Thunder and Colt CLOWN
Thunder and Colt CLOWN · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From No airport to No airport
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN90LA008
- 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
Thunder and Colt CLOWN
- Aircraft type
- Thunder And Colt CLOWN
- 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
- GGWIZ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From No airportTo 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Balloon equipment, envelope › Ruptured
- Manufacturer › Inadequate quality control
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT WAS OPERATING HIS HOT AIR BALLOON IN A BALLOON FIESTA WITH 3 PASSENGERS (PAX). THE BALLOON WAS SHAPED LIKE A 138 FT TALL, STANDING CLOWN, WITH THE RIGHT ARM RAISED TO HEAD LEVEL. THE ARM IS DESIGNED TO WAVE WHEN THE PLT PULLED A CONTROL LINE. THE PLT SAID THAT DURING THE ASCENT, AT 20 FT AGL, THE BALLOON ENVELOPE BEGAN TO TEAR. HE SAID THE RIP CONTINUED UNTIL IT WAS 47 FT LONG, VERTICALLY. A WITNESS SAID THAT THE LOSS OF HOT AIR RESULTED IN A GENTLE UNCONTROLLED DESCENT, AND THE BALLOON LANDED WITHOUT FURTHER DAMAGE OR INJURY. A POST-ACDNT INSPECTION REVEALED THAT DURING THE FIRST ARM CONTROL INPUTS, THE KELVAR CONTROL LINE PULLED LOOSE FROM AN ATTACHED 'D' RING, TORE A GROMMET LOOSE & SAWED THE FABRIC. RPRTDLY, THERE WERE NO LOAD TAPES INSTALLED IN THE AREA OF THE ARM/TORSO JUNCTURE.
Probable cause
STRUCTURAL FAILURE OF THE BALLOON ENVELOPE AS A RESULT OF THE MANUFACTURER'S QUALITY CONTROL OVERSIGHT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN90LA008
- Event ID
- 20001213X29587
- Case number
- DEN90LA008
- 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: 4e763ea94602b5d4068aa1271c5cdbd38ee9ef6c711d8ac46034afb5f56ad025; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:04:08.537Z.