GAA17CA082 · Cameron A315
Napa Valley Balloons Cameron A315 · Accident: loss of control on ground while standing
From Yolo County Davis Woodland Winters Airport (DWA) to Yolo County Davis Woodland Winters Airport (DWA)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA17CA082
- 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
Cameron A315
- Aircraft type
- Cameron A315
- 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
- N69520
- Operator
- Napa Valley Balloons
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Yolo County Davis Woodland Winters Airport (DWA), DAVIS/WOODLAND/WINTERS, CATo Yolo County Davis Woodland Winters Airport (DWA), DAVIS/WOODLAND/WINTERS, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 2 years (built 2014)
- 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
- Standing
- 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
- Loss of control on ground
- 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 › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of a balloon reported that while aloft he observed the wind increase to about 10 miles per hour, so he briefed his passengers on how to brace for a "high wind landing" and possible basket tip-over. The pilot further reported that he descended to about 3 feet above ground, and once over the target landing area he "shut off [the] fuel tanks and burners then pulled the smart vent (rapid deflation valve)." Subsequently, on touch down the basket bounced once and skidded about 15 to 20 yards before stopping with the basket tipping over on its side.
The pilot reported that he secured the basket and while the passengers were exiting the basket, his ground crew informed him that a passenger had injured her ankle. According to the pilot, the injured passenger did not speak English as her first language and he was unsure if she braced appropriately for the landing or if she sustained the serious injury while exiting the basket. The pilot reported that another passenger informed him that the passenger sustained the injury while she was exiting the basket.
The pilot did not report any preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the balloon that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The passenger's improper egress from the balloon basket, which resulted in a serious injury.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA17CA082
- Event ID
- 20161129X51159
- Case number
- GAA17CA082
- 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: 1586cfc7715e948e3af80532ad1d2ccc8f87bc1bc0173f88a8f7b91b6de6cb8d; retrieved 2026-09-16T04:52:00.450Z.