CEN22LA365 · Ultramagic SA M56C
Ultramagic SA M56C · Accident: collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT) en route
From Des Moines International Airport (KDSM) to Des Moines International Airport (KDSM)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN22LA365
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
Ultramagic SA M56C
- Aircraft type
- Ultramagic M56
- 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
- N801UM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Des Moines International Airport (KDSM), Des Moines, IATo Des Moines International Airport (KDSM), Des Moines, IA
- Aircraft age
- About 3 years (built 2019)
- 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- Collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT)
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that he was participating in a balloon event that consisted of dropping markers on targets at various locations. While approaching the final target, he crossed some trees about 200 ft above ground level (agl) in a descent. After crossing the trees, when the balloon was about 20 ft agl, he heard someone announce “powerline” over his crew radio and saw approaching powerlines above his line of sight. He immediately pulled his deflation line and shut off the fuel tanks. The balloon subsequently contacted the powerlines, which resulted in electrical arcing and the basket impacted the ground. The balloon sustained substantial damage to the envelope and the basket. The pilot reported that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the balloon that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain adequate clearance from powerlines.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN22LA365
- Event ID
- 20220808105681
- Case number
- CEN22LA365
- 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, cause areas. 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: b6b4ba2102f4a12fd0d92068fd173e761ce1f94ecb0bab60171ef1a05ea35a20; retrieved 2026-09-16T15:35:04.217Z.