NYC04LA078 · Raven Industries Rally RX7
Raven Industries Rally RX7 · Accident: in flight collision with object during takeoff
From Nicholasville, KY (no airport) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC04LA078
- 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
- 1 · 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
Raven Industries Rally RX7
- Aircraft type
- Raven RALLY RX7
- 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
- N4110M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Nicholasville, KY (no airport)To 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- 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
- Wire, transmission
- 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
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The hot-air balloon was inflated "normally," and the pilot planned to launch from a field about 300 feet long and 100 feet wide, with 35-foot tall power lines lining the north edge of the field. As the balloon began to stand up about 200 feet south of the power lines, the wind increased in velocity and became gusty. The wind then pushed the balloon forward, and the basket tipped slightly. The balloon began to "scoot" along the ground, the pilot released the tie-down line, activated the burner, and instructed the crew to "weight off." The balloon ascended to an altitude of about 5 to 10 feet, and the pilot was observed activating the burner several times; however, the balloon did not rise as expected. As the balloon approached the power lines, the pilot closed the fuel tank valves, pulled the redline to open the vent, and ducked inside the basket. The balloon suspension cables contacted the power lines, the cables severed, and the basket fell about 35 feet to the ground in a horizontal attitude.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper decision to continue the inadvertent flight in variable wind conditions, which resulted in an impact with power lines. Factors were the variable wind conditions and the unsuitable takeoff area.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC04LA078
- Event ID
- 20040308X00294
- Case number
- NYC04LA078
- 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: 7e183e796c7065001ba9b37b30064269b1608a7446b5ba3f44fbd547243a958a; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:32:03.442Z.