CHI86LA018 · Balloon Works FIREFLY 7
Balloon Works FIREFLY 7 · Accident: uncontrolled altitude deviation on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI86LA018
- 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 7
- Aircraft type
- Balloon Works FIREFLY 7
- 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
- N4056L
- Operator
- Mary Bobik
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Uncontrolled altitude deviation
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Nws personnel › Hazardous weather advisory, not possible
- Nws personnel › Weather forecast, inaccurate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ACCORDING TO THE PILOT SHE RECEIVED WIND INFORMATION FROM A FLIGHT SERVICE STATION, THE NOAA AND ATIS APPROXIMATELY 1.5 HOURS PRIOR TO TAKEOFF. ALL THESE SOURCES PREDICTED WINDS TO BE LESS THAN 7 KNOTS. WINDS WERE 'VERY LIGHT' DURING BALLOON INFLATION. THE LAUNCH WAS UNEVENTFUL UNTIL THE BALLOON ROSE ABOVE THE TREES WHERE THE VELOCITY OVER THE GROUND INCREASED TO AN EVENTUAL 17 KNOTS. THE CHECK PILOT THEN INSTRUCTED THE PILOT TO SKIM THE TOPS OF CORN IN A CORNFIELD TO SIMULATE A TOUCH AND GO LANDING. THE FIELD SHE SELECTED WAS ON THE FAR SIDE OF A SET OF POWER LINES AND A WOODED AREA. AS SHE CLEARED THE POWER LINES THE WIND SHIFTED TO A HEADWIND AND THE BALLOON DESCENDED INTO THE TREES IN SPITE OF A PROPANE BURN TO ARREST THE DESCENT. THE BALLOON ENVELOPE WAS DAMAGED BY THE TREES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI86LA018
- Event ID
- 20001214X37990
- Case number
- CHI86LA018
- 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: 710f4732bb2fb081a80cd6a6abe178f92aaacaf5a77f1d1f322c2aa7573bda4e; retrieved 2026-09-23T15:24:21.734Z.