ERA23LA391 · Balloon Works FIREFLY 7 15
Balloon Works FIREFLY 7 15 · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA23LA391
- 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
Balloon Works FIREFLY 7 15
- Aircraft type
- Balloon Works FIREFLY 7
- 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
- N192HH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 31 years (built 1992)
- 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
- 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 during takeoff/landing
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the balloon reported that before the flight, the reported wind direction called for a favorable path with many available landing areas; however, during the flight the wind shifted and the balloon traveled over congested living areas and neighborhoods. As he was looking for a place to land the wind was light and variable. He attempted an approach to a cul-de-sac; however, spectators were parked there, preventing a landing. He aborted the approach and tried another to a corner field. That approach was also aborted due to powerlines in the vicinity. He attempted another approach to a “small area” and the balloon’s envelope caught tree limbs during the descent. After becoming briefly suspended in the tree branches about 5 to 8 feet above the ground, the branches broke and balloon basket dropped to the ground. The passenger sustained a minor injury, the pilot was not injured. Postaccident examination of the balloon revealed substantial damage to several fabric panels and two suspension cables. The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the balloon that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to avoid trees during the descent for landing, resulting in substantial damage to the balloon.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA23LA391
- Event ID
- 20231026193306
- Case number
- ERA23LA391
- 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, coordinates, 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: 1e7b855aaaf3dc20d6870366d0a87b51f73c7dfcd820e582a9be36a2c0a06ed9; retrieved 2026-09-16T18:15:12.097Z.