ATL84LA278 · Head Balloons, Inc. AX7-77
Head Balloons, Inc. AX7-77 · Accident: in flight collision with object during landing
From Atlanta, GA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL84LA278
- 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
Head Balloons, Inc. AX7-77
- Aircraft type
- Head AX7
- 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
- N2484S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Atlanta, 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
- Landing
- 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 object
- 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
- Passenger › Control interference, attempted
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, delayed
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, delayed
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Austell, GA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
WHILE FLYING AT A LOW ALT LOOKING FOR A SUITABLE LANDING AREA THE PLT NOTICED POWER LINES AT A HIGHER ALT. PLT INITIALLYAPPLIED HEAT TO THE ENVELOPE TO TRY AND CLIMB ABOVE THE WIRES, BUT DID NOT IMMEDIATELY REALIZE THE HEIGHT OF THE WIRES. PLT THEN ADVISED PAX SHE WOULD HAVE TO 'DUMP IT' AND BEGAN TO PULL THE CORD TO OPEN THE ENVELOPE DEFLATION VALVE IN ORDER TO LAND SHORT OF THE WIRES. ONE OF THE PAX, WITHOUT OBTAINING PERMISSION FROM THE PLT, REPORTEDLY USED THE BURNER TO ADD HEAT TO THE ENVELOPE AT ABOUT THE SAME TIME. THE BASKET UPRIGHTS AND THE CABLES IMMEDIATELY ABOVE THE BASKET CONTACTED THE WIRES AT AN ALT OF APRX 40 FT AGL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL84LA278
- Event ID
- 20001214X40970
- Case number
- ATL84LA278
- 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: 2fccb1a307556b6f6bc3f66ba503ad07424d694aff1528caac2b8c233334d8fd; retrieved 2026-09-22T02:07:25.183Z.