WPR12CA163 · Avian Balloon MAGNUM IX
Northern Light Balloon Expeditions Avian Balloon MAGNUM IX and Northern Light Balloon Expeditions Avian Balloon MAGNUM IX · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR12CA163
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Avian Balloon MAGNUM IX
- Aircraft type
- Avian Balloon MAGNUM IX
- 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
- N2037U
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sedona Airport (SEZ), Sedona, AZTo Sedona, 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
- Approach
- Defining eventThe 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Avian Balloon MAGNUM IX
- Aircraft type
- Avian Balloon MAGNUM IX
- 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
- N20513
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sedona Airport (SEZ), Sedona, AZTo Sedona, 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
- Approach
- Defining eventThe 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
- Midair collision
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Two balloons were on approach to land and collided into each other. Balloon A, N2037U, was at a lower altitude and in front of balloon B, N20513. As the pilots were descending to land, balloon A began to slow about 10 feet above ground level and the pilot of balloon B realized that the balloons' envelopes might touch, which he noted was not uncommon during takeoffs and landings. As balloon A came closer into his view, he thought the contact may push it into the ground, so he decided to ascend. During the climb, the basket of balloon B collided with the envelope of balloon A, tearing two of its panels just above the equator, resulting in substantial damage. The pilot of balloon B landed his balloon without further incident. The pilot of balloon A observed the envelope tearing and opened both burners. His balloon contacted the ground and bounced, momentarily becoming airborne again before touching down. Both pilots stated that there were no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures with the balloons that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot of another balloon did not maintain adequate clearance during approach for landing between his basket and the envelope of this balloon that was also on approach, which resulted in a midair collision.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR12CA163
- Event ID
- 20120413X01034
- Case number
- WPR12CA163
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: f7e39f937b44f955807104e7808ba4a22db11f3a7baecfd3b374c4af614d576f; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:20:51.140Z.