LAX04LA123 · Balloon Works Firefly 11
Hot Air Expeditions Balloon Works Firefly 11 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during landing
From Phoenix, AZ to Phoenix, AZ
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX04LA123
- 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
- Unknown
- 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 11
- Aircraft type
- Balloon Works FIREFLY 11
- 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
- N7244X
- Operator
- Hot Air Expeditions
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Phoenix, AZTo Phoenix, AZ
- 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
- 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, control system › Fatigue
- Balloon equipment, control system › Separation
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not possible
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot and 10 passengers were dragged across desert terrain in a balloon, following the pilot's attempt to land. After an uneventful flight, the balloon touched down and the pilot initiated the deflation sequence. Several seconds into the deflation, the balloon's vent line separated. The separation occurred inside the balloon's envelope, resulting in the deflation mechanism becoming reseated. The surface wind increased and the pilot lost control of the balloon. Several passengers shouted that they wanted to egress the balloon carriage, but the pilot advised them that the change in weight would cause the balloon to become airborne. The carriage was dragged about 1,600 feet across terrain, colliding with cactus, rocks, and bushes. After the accident, the failed vent line was examined at the manufacturer's facility. The line construction was in conformance to the manufacturer's specification. Deterioration of the core fiber was typical of that resulting from flexural fatigue. However, due to the absence of information regarding the rigging configuration and/or conditions of use, the cause of the core-fiber deterioration was inconclusive. The manufacturer noted that the failed core fiber points at the failure point were consistent with one or more of the following conditions: insufficient bend radius while rope is under load; pinching of rope between objects; severe localized overloading.
Probable cause
the failure of the deflation vent line, which resulted in the pilot not being able to control the balloon in the increased wind conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX04LA123
- Event ID
- 20040223X00222
- Case number
- LAX04LA123
- 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, coordinates. 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: f2bedb97a04fa3a64b2b20ae93de7b343de01d4d382e1792a9da3c4ec2fb99a0; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:17:36.332Z.