LAX86LA159 · Balloon Works FIREFLY 8-24 FIREFLY 8-
Balloon Works FIREFLY 8-24 FIREFLY 8- · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Glendale, AZ to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX86LA159
- 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
Balloon Works FIREFLY 8-24 FIREFLY 8-
- Aircraft type
- Balloon Works FIREFLY 8
- 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
- N3694C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Glendale, AZTo 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 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
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, performed
- Pilot in command › Passenger briefing, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE BALLOON COLLIDED WITH THE TERRAIN DURING A SIGHT SEEING TOUR. THE PLT NOTICED THE DUST SIGNATURE OF GROUND TURBULENT WX PHENOMENA KNOWN AS ROTORS OR DUST DEVILS ARPX 3 MILES AHEAD. HE ELECTED TO MAKE AN IMMEDIATE PRECAUTIONARY LANDING AND DESCENDED TO AN ALT OF 75 FT AGL. THE BALLOON WAS DRIFTING AT 3 TO 5 KTS OVER AN ORCHARD ON FINAL APCH TO AN OPEN FLD WHEN IT ENCOUNTERED THE ADVERSE WIND. THE BALLOON CHANGED ITS' DIRECTION OF TRAVEL 180 DEGS. THE PLT INITIATED A CLIMB BY SWITCHING ON BOTH BURNERS, BUT THE BALLOON DESCENDED AND WAS DRAGGED THROUGH THE TREE TOPS OF THE ORCHARD. AT 20 FT AGL THE BALLOON BEGAN TO CLIMB TO AN ALT OF 100 TO 120 FT AND THEN ENCOUNTERED A STRONG DOWNDRAFT.THE PLT SHUT OFF BOTH BURNERS AND PILOT LIGHTS AND THEN ALERTED THE PASSENGERS. THE PLT PULLED THE PARACHUTE DEFLATION PORT AND THE BALLOON LANDED HARD. ON IMPACT ONE PASSENGER WAS THROWN FROM THE BASKET AND SUSTAINED SERIOUS INJURIES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX86LA159
- Event ID
- 20001213X33113
- Case number
- LAX86LA159
- 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: 1a2634ce62f614cc331601721d3cc20c3c49fbeb56e8e86f82378dee940af8e1; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:01:24.969Z.