- Date
- July 23, 2023, 21:24 local (Jul 24, 2023, 01:24 UTC)
- Place
- Guilford, CT · Guilford Fair Grounds
- Injuries
- 1 serious, 3 uninjured; on the ground: 1 serious
- Damage
- No damage
- Phase of flight
- Standing
- Aircraft
- N4522EHead Balloons AX8-88
- Defining event
- Standing: Aircraft loading event
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Night
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Eastern Region Aviation
- Parties
- FAA/FSDO
- FAA report
- 20230723010369A
- Case key
- 192734
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
The pilot’s inadequate supervision of the boarding process and the ground crewmember’s failure to immediately let go of the balloon after it began an inadvertent climb.
Findings · 2
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
The pilot had been operating the hot air balloon for several hours and was providing tethered flights to passengers at a fairground during a night event. The pilot described that at the conclusion of a several minute flight, he would land and exchange passengers. To maintain the weight of the balloon during the passenger exchange, one passenger would disembark and then would be replaced by a boarding passenger. There were also several (volunteer) ground crewmembers who would keep their weight on the balloon’s basket and help control the flow of passengers in and out of the basket. Shortly before the accident, the pilot was assisting a passenger with boarding when two passengers unexpectedly disembarked. The balloon suddenly started to rise, and the pilot yelled, “clear, watch the ropes,” which was the signal to the ground crewmembers to take their hands off the basket and to make sure that none of the exiting passengers got caught in the tether ropes. As the balloon rose, the pilot felt a shake, and when he looked over the side of the basket, he saw one of the ground crewmembers lying on the ground. One of the passengers described that when she stepped off the balloon, it began rising. She saw a ground crewmember hanging on the outside of the basket as it climbed. When the balloon reached about 15 to 20 feet above the ground, the ground crewmember let go. The ground crewmember was seriously injured during the fall.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N4522E
- Reported as
- Head Balloons AX8-88
- Category
- Balloon
- Serial number
- 183
- Built
- 1992
- Airframe hours
- 659
- Damage
- No damage
- Flight
- Aerial observation · Part 91
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Balloon
- Last inspection
- Annual · October 1, 2022
- Airport
- NONE · Fairground
- Equipment
- None
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
- 74
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Commercial
- Seat
- None
- Restraint
- None
- Flight hours
- 2,328 total · 60 in this make and model · 2,310 as pilot in command · 23 in the last 90 days · 10 in the last 30 days · 5 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Night
- Wind
- Calm
Docket · 4
The files NTSB released with the investigation on February 22, 2024, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 2.8 MB in all.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.
Other investigations on N4522E · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.