- Date
- August 12, 2000, 09:15 local (15:15 UTC)
- Place
- Edwards, CO
- Injuries
- 6 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N5268LAerostar S-66A
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report March 2, 2001
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 20000812013199A
- Case key
- 51117
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
Lack of crew coordination when the ground crew failed to hold the balloon in position following landing as the pilot expected them to do. A factor was power lines.
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
During landing, at the completion of a local area commercial sightseeing flight, the pilot of the balloon thought the ground crew was going to hold the balloon in position. They failed to do so, and the balloon drifted into power lines. Wind at the time was approximately 4 knots.
Factual narrative
On August 12, 2000, at 0915 mountain daylight time, an Aerostar S-66A balloon, N5268L sustained substantial damage when it struck power lines during landing at Edwards, Colorado. The commercial pilot and his five passengers were not injured. The flight was operating under Title 14 CFR Part 913 as a local area sightseeing flight and no flight plan was filed. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed.
According to the pilot, wind blew the balloon into power lines during the landing when the ground crew, who the pilot thought was going to hold it in position, failed to do so. The pilot reported the wind at the time to be about 4 knots.
Damage to the balloon was to the pyrometer, 7 panels, and 2 load tapes.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N5268L
- Reported as
- Aerostar S-66A
- Category
- Balloon
- Serial number
- S66A-3064
- Airframe hours
- 29
- Engine
- unknown
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Part 91
- Operator
- Camelot Balloons, Inc.
- Registered owner
- Edward Sagon
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · June 30, 2000 · 29 hours before
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
- 52
- Certificate
- Commercial
- Medical
- Unknown, Unknown
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 63 °F, dew point 46 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.00 inHg
- Observed at
- EGE, 50 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.