LAX82DA094 · Barnes AX-7
Barnes AX-7 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From Henderson, NV to Henderson, NV
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX82DA094
- 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
Barnes AX-7
- Aircraft type
- Barnes AX-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
- N90790
- Operator
- Charles Leisek
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Henderson, NVTo Henderson, NV
- 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
- Loss of control on ground/water
- 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 › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, selected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE INFLATING THE BALLOON, THE PILOT HAD SOME TROUBLE KEEPING THE PILOT LIGHT LIT. AFTER THE BALLOON WAS INFLATED, IT WAS FLOWN ON A 20 MINUTE FLIGHT WITHOUT INCIDENT. HOWEVER, WHILE LANDING ON THE SECOND FLIGHT, THE BALLOON BOUNCE DURING TOUCHDOWN. AT ABOUT THE SAME TIME THERE WAS ABOUT A 90 DEGREE WINDSHIFT AND THE BALLOON STARTED DRIFTING TOWARD SOME ROCKS. THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO LIGHT THE BURNER TO CLEAR THE ROCKS, BUT REPORTEDLY HAD A FLAME OUT. THE PILOT WAS KNOCKED OUT OF THE BASKET AND INJURED WHEN IT HIT THE ROCKS. WITH LESS WEIGHT IN THE BASKET, THE BALLOON BEGAN A RAPID CLIMB. ANOTHER BALLOON PILOT WAS ALSO ON BOARD. HE ASSUMED CONTROL AND LANDED THE BALLOON SAFELY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX82DA094
- Event ID
- 20020917X02186
- Case number
- LAX82DA094
- 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: 7f520aa9708d07d3d93ad1983bfddbf144eee1b62c9b842a455e216dc8eaa280; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:18:40.025Z.