- Date
- October 8, 1983, 19:26 local (23:26 UTC)
- Place
- Wyoming, MI
- Injuries
- 1 serious, 5 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N4022KAdams AB
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Dusk
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19831008053619A
- Case key
- 12474
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The balloon collided with the ground, bounced, hit a house and a utility pole before being torn enough to come to rest. The hard landing in an 8 kt wind tore the vent line from the pilots hand, he lost the ability to vent the balloon and during the collisions and dragging he lost 2 strikers he wanted to use to relight the burner pilot lights. The partiallydeflated balloon became a sail and dragged the basket until the pole and wires ripped the envelope two full gore lengthsand it deflated after traveling 300 ft further. Five of the six people on board were not injured. One received a broken ankle which required surgery. The balloon flight lasted about one hour and 20 minutes before the landing attempt which ended in the accident.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N4022K
- Reported as
- Adams AB
- Category
- Balloon
- Serial number
- 127
- Airframe hours
- 26
- Engine
- unknown
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Ronald V. Korsky
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Departed
- Cannonsburg, MI
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 35
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Unknown
- Flight hours
- 32 total · 32 in this make and model · 23 as pilot in command · 32 in the last 90 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Dusk
- Wind
- 30° at 8 knots
- Visibility
- 20 statute miles
- Temperature
- 55 °F, dew point 39 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- GRR, 10 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.