CEN15LA103 · Lindstrand Balloons USA 120A
Lindstrand Balloons USA 120A · Accident: hard landing
From Baxter, IA to Peru, IN
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN15LA103
- 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
Lindstrand Balloons USA 120A
- Aircraft type
- Lindstrand 120
- 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
- N316TB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Baxter, IATo Peru, IN
- Aircraft age
- About 3 years (built 2012)
- 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 · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Hard landing
- 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
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he made a normal landing approach but that the surface wind velocity was higher than forecast, which required him to use a high-wind landing technique. The pilot remained in control of the balloon during the hard landing and was able to properly brace himself before the landing. However, shortly after touchdown, the balloon tipped over onto its side, which was typical for a high-wind landing; the balloon was not damaged. The pilot fell out of the basket after his shoulder contacted the ground. The pilot was able to pull the vent line to fully deflate the envelope after touchdown. Following the hard landing, the pilot was admitted to a hospital and treated for a serious neck injury.
Probable cause
The hard landing due to a higher-than-forecast surface wind, which resulted in a serious neck injury to the pilot.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN15LA103
- Event ID
- 20150115X51623
- Case number
- CEN15LA103
- 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: ab9f6b3c1e9cedde994fc825dd8564ac6323e12fd4f0888a6897d0129ea4e4fe; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:01:39.724Z.