LAX07LA126 · Arbc Inc 150A
Arbc Inc 150A · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Indio, CA to Mecca, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX07LA126
- 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
Arbc Inc 150A
- Aircraft type
- Arbc 150
- 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
- N156LB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Indio, CATo Mecca, CA
- 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
- 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
- Aircraft performance, landing capability › Exceeded
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
- Pilot in command › Weather forecast, disregarded
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The balloon pilot was conducting a for-hire sightseeing balloon ride to five tourists. The pilot had received a weather briefing that stated winds at the closest airport, 7 miles away, were 310 degrees at 11 knots. The next closest airport, about 20 miles away was reporting winds 310 degrees at 12 knots gusting to 18 knots. The forecast for the area had occasional gusty surface winds up to 25 knots. Winds aloft, up to 9,000 feet, were from the north between 15 and 29 knots. The balloon flight manual states that the maximum surface wind speed for takeoff and landing is 15 knots. The pilot determined that the winds at the first takeoff location were not favorable, and took the balloon party to a second location. At the second takeoff location the pilot noted the winds by looking at treetop and had the balloon inflated. He had the passengers load into the basket. Once airborne he stated that the flight will be shorter than usual because of the winds. In fact the balloon had covered the distance that usually takes 1 hour in about 20 minutes. The pilot gave a prelanding briefing to the passengers, and prepared them for a faster than normal landing. The winds in the landing area were 10 knots with gusts between 15 and 20 knots, which were above the balloon's recommended landing wind limit. As the pilot directed the balloon into the selected landing zone, the balloon began to descend more rapidly than the pilot could compensate for and headed directly for a row of electrical power lines. During the landing approach the basket overhead structure struck and broke through a section of electrical power lines. The balloon basket continued its descent, impacted the ground hard, bounced up, impacted the ground a second time, and ejected two passengers in the direction the balloon was traveling. The basket landed on one of the ejected passengers and then was drug along the ground a few feet further before coming to a complete stop.
Probable cause
The pilot's decision to fly in forecasted unfavorable wind conditions that exceeded the balloon's capabilities.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX07LA126
- Event ID
- 20070418X00433
- Case number
- LAX07LA126
- 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: d2c663caad69c6bc9b52e12916497021b7f8fd91fe8dde06a8c8b71e2cf403e6; retrieved 2026-09-20T16:44:23.621Z.