WPR26LA170 · Balony Kubicek Spol SRO BB100Z
Balony Kubicek Spol SRO BB100Z · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR26LA170
- 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
Balony Kubicek Spol SRO BB100Z
- Aircraft type
- Balony Kubicek BB100
- 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
- N355WC
- Operator
- Wim Scott van der Horst
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- About 10 years (built 2016)
- 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- 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 handling/service
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- 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 the balloon was secured to a three-point mooring system that was attached to three vehicles and 2,000 lbs of ballast was added to the basket for a static display. The wind pattern changed, which shifted most of the weight to one of the tether anchor lines. During a subsequent repositioning maneuver to increase the distance from the adjacent building for a precautionary deflation, the tether line failed and the balloon shifted towards the building. The pilot who was onboard during the static display, immediately applied burner to climb and clear the approaching building. After the balloon had ascended a second tether line failed under tension which allowed the balloon to clear the building. Photos provided by the pilot show the folded envelope and 7 bundles of the balloon’s flying wires. Five of the individual flying wires had separated and frayed ends. A media video taken from ground level showed the balloon floating about 30 ft above the ground and attached to tether lines that were secured to a large truck and two construction vehicles. The video showed the balloon’s envelope canted slightly to one side before the balloon’s tether line separated. One second later, the ballon moved towards the building as the basket rocked back and forth. The basket then impacted trees and flew over a crowd of people before it collided with the building. The balloon’s basket was dragged along the side of the building as it was pulled by the envelope. The video showed that the basket’s burner support rods on one side of the basket were bent as the basket hung at a slant from the envelope after the balloon ascended over the building. During the pilot’s subsequent approach to a field, the balloon impacted powerlines.
Probable cause
The pilot’s delayed decision to deflate the balloon during a static display in windy conditions, which resulted in a loss of control and impact with a building. Contributing to the accident was the proximity of the balloon from structures during a static display.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR26LA170
- Event ID
- 20260428202905
- Case number
- WPR26LA170
- 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: 8862200176dd8779fcd579b4a46777bef6a3b6b9ecebbdefb9958497089b778b; retrieved 2026-09-16T21:20:56.529Z.