ERA24LA382 · Aerostar International Inc RX-7
Aerostar International Inc RX-7 · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing on approach
From Charlton, NY (private airstrip) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA24LA382
- 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
- 0
- 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
Aerostar International Inc RX-7
- Aircraft type
- Aerostar RX-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
- N53081
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Charlton, NY (private airstrip)To not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 22 years (built 2002)
- 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
- Approach
- 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
- Wire
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Psychological
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 reported that he launched his hot air balloon for a brief solo flight with the intent of practicing maneuvers during calm wind conditions. Shortly after departure, he prepared for landing on a spot about 1/4-mile away that consisted of a flat harvested corn field. During the landing approach, he observed a powerline perpendicular to his final approach and landing target. He initially thought about climbing, but realized the balloon would not react fast enough, so he opened the vent to deflate the envelope and descend. The balloon envelope did not vent quickly enough and the balloon drifted into the powerlines, resulting in electrical arcing until the electrical breaker shut off. The basket settled onto the ground and the balloon envelope remained partially inflated and draped over the powerlines. The arcing resulted in substantial damage to the balloon; 6 cables were severed and there were multiple burn holes in the envelope. The pilot reported that there were no pre impact mechanical malfunctions or failures of the balloon that would have precluded normal operation or performance.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain adequate clearance from powerlines during final approach for landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA24LA382
- Event ID
- 20240917195131
- Case number
- ERA24LA382
- 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: f3f47639a232614a24088fbdfe4715afe9b759b0c9f20eb556985a41454f2dbc; retrieved 2026-09-16T19:16:35.997Z.