CHI08LA037 · Padelt PG37-1
Padelt PG37-1 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Greeley, CO to Hampton, IA
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI08LA037
- 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
- 2 · 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
Padelt PG37-1
- Aircraft type
- Padelt PG37
- 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
- N4448Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Greeley, COTo Hampton, IA
- 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
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The cross country flight in the helium balloon began two days prior to the accident. The surviving passenger stated that the accident occurred as they were landing on the second morning of the flight. He stated that they began a three to four mile "stair-step" approach for landing. The approach consisted of repeatedly dropping ballast, venting, and leveling off. He stated that the approach was well controlled and they were not in a hurry to land. The passenger stated that they saw the power lines during the approach and the pilot asked him to drop a half of scoop, about two cups, of sand. Shortly thereafter, the pilot asked him to drop another half of a scoop, which he did. The pilot then instructed him to drop half of a bag of sand. He stated that they thought the balloon was going to clear the power lines. When it became evident that they were going to contact the lines, the pilot instructed both passengers to get into the bottom of the gondola. The passenger stated that the side of the gondola hit the top cable of the power lines and the power lines wedged between the balloon cables and the top of the gondola. He stated that the balloon remained entangled in the power lines for several minutes. He then heard a snap and the gondola fell to the ground.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate in-flight planning which resulted in the failure to maintain clearance with the power lines. Contributing to the accident was the power line.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI08LA037
- Event ID
- 20071119X01813
- Case number
- CHI08LA037
- 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: 2544fdbbbc27fc7dd70c389a7f2bfaeafac9083c360327a3e2a7bb2f665a9b97; retrieved 2026-09-20T16:06:44.864Z.