GAA15CA157 · Balloon Works FIREFLY8 - 24
Balloons West Balloon Works FIREFLY8 - 24 and Balony Kubicek Spol SRO BB30Z · Accident: midair collision during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA15CA157
- 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 · Balloon Works FIREFLY8 - 24
- Aircraft type
- Balloon Works FIREFLY8
- 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
- N7148P
- Operator
- Balloons West
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Provo, UTTo Provo, UT
- Aircraft age
- About 16 years (built 1999)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 · Balony Kubicek Spol SRO BB30Z
- Aircraft type
- Balony Kubicek BB30
- 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
- N11UW
- Operator
- Pivic Bruce W
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Provo, UTTo Provo, UT
- Aircraft age
- About 5 years (built 2010)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
**This report was modified on 4/21/2016. Please see the public docket for this accident for more information.**
The pilots of the two balloons involved in a midair collision reported that they both began the takeoff ascent as part of a competition. The Balloon Works balloon pilot, who was lower than the Balony balloon during the ascent, reported that his envelope collided vertically with the basket of the Balony balloon, about 2,000 feet above the ground. The Balony balloon pilot reported that he saw the Balloon Works balloon below him and started to use both of the available burners, but was unable to climb fast enough. A witness to the accident reported that the Balony balloon pilot did not use the balloon's burners until after the collision. After the midair collision, the Balloon Works balloon began to descend about 700 feet per minute and impacted the ground. The pilot of the Balony Balloon reported that he landed without further incident.
Both of the pilots reported there were no pre-impact mechanical failures or malfunctions with their balloons or burners that would have precluded normal operation.
A postaccident inspection of the Balony balloon revealed no damage to the balloon or the burner. A postaccident inspection of the Balloon Works balloon revealed substantial damage to the envelope.
Probable cause
**This report was modified on 4/21/2016. Please see the public docket for this accident for more information.**
The failure of the Balony balloon pilot to see and avoid the Balloon Works balloon during an ascent, which resulted in the basket of the Balony balloon colliding vertically with the envelope of the Balloon Works balloon.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA15CA157
- Event ID
- 20150706X63628
- Case number
- GAA15CA157
- 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: bc00ec10f8f526f6dbbd91fbd9b9ce0f464581127d966819a1b482313cf9c191; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:24:19.438Z.