NTSB CAROL · Event
Event CEN13CA372
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilots’ encounter with increased wind, which resulted in a hard and fast landing.
Factual narrative
The pilot said there had been very little wind when he had launched in his balloon earlier and his flight at about 1,000 feet above ground level (agl) was normal. He reported that there was very little wind until he descended to about 300 feet agl when the wind began to interfere. The pilot advised all passengers to lower themselves inside the basket and to brace themselves for a hard landing. The passengers advised that the balloon basket hit the ground “very hard” and bounced several times before hitting the slope side of a dirt hill where the basket flipped onto its side and was dragged in the dirt in that tipped-over position. The total distance from first impact to the balloon's final resting location was estimated at about 1,300 feet. The impact resulted in substantial damage to the main basket, the basket partitions, and substantial damage to the burner cage. The pilot said there had been very little wind when he had launched in his balloon earlier and his flight at about 1,000 feet above ground level (agl) was normal. He reported that there was very little wind until he descended to about 300 feet agl when the wind began to interfere. The pilot advised all passengers to lower themselves inside the basket and to brace themselves for a hard landing. The passengers advised that the balloon basket hit the ground “very hard” and bounced several times before hitting the slope side of a dirt hill where the basket flipped onto its side and was dragged in the dirt in that tipped-over position. The total distance from first impact to the balloon's final resting location was estimated at about 1,300 feet. The impact resulted in substantial damage to the main basket, the basket partitions, and substantial damage to the burner cage. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).
- C Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Wind-High wind-Effect on operation - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2013_CEN13CA372.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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