Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Mcalester, Oklahoma 74501
Monday, October 4, 1999 5:00 CDT
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
The balloon was participating in a long distance race and had been airborne for approximately 31.5 hours. The pilot had been aware of thunderstorms in the balloon's flight path for about 6.5 hours and had been attempting to track away from the storms, but was unable to do so. According to the pilot, the balloon was in level flight at 7,000 feet, above a cloud layer, when he initiated a precautionary landing to avoid an encounter with the thunderstorms. The balloon broke out at 1,280 feet agl in dark night light conditions. The balloon landed hard and then became airborne again reaching a height of 80 feet. During the second ground contact, the pilot was ejected from the basket, and subsequently, the basket 'dragged' over the pilot and then came to a stop. The pilot reported that the winds were from 360 degrees at 20 knots gusting to 22 knots. The pilot stated that 'improved met[eorological] information would have allowed a night landing to be made at 3 knots earlier rather than at 20 knots.'
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
The pilot's continued flight into known adverse weather, which resulted in a hard landing. Factors were the thunderstorms, dark night light conditions, and the high winds.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 10/4/1999 |
| Event Day of the Week | Monday |
| Time of Event | 500 |
| Event Time Zone | Central Daylight Time |
| Event City | MCALESTER |
| Event State | OKLAHOMA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 74501 |
| Event Date Year | 1999 |
| Event Date Month | 10 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | |
| Event Location Longitude | |
| Event Location Airport | |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | -- |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Unknown |
| Investigator's weather source | Pilot |
| Time of the weather observation | 0 |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 0 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 0 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 0 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | |
| Lighting Conditions | Night/Dark |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | 1300 |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | 0 |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Clear |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | Overcast |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | 0 |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | 0 |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 5 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | -- |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -- |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 360 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 20 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Gust (knots) | 22 |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 30 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | Unknown |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | Serious |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | 0 |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | 1 |
| Injury Total None | -- |
| Injury Total Serious | 1 |
| Injury Total All | 2 |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 1394 |
| NTSB Notification Source | -- |
| NTSB Notification Date | Oct 4 1999 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 2145 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | IMAGE |
| Date of most recent change to record | Dec 12 2000 11:59AM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | -- |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | GBWOK |
| NTSB Number | FTW00LA004 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | N |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 91: General Aviation |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | None |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | -- |
| Damage | Substantial |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Lindstrand |
| Aircraft Model | LBL-105G |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | LBL-105G |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 370 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 1050 |
| Aircraft Category | Balloon |
| Aircraft Registration Class | Foreign Registered/U.S. Soil |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 2 |
| Number of Engines | -- |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Fixed |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Annual |
| Date of Last Inspection | Aug 2 1999 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | -- |
| Airframe Hours | 71 |
| ELT Installed | Unknown |
| ELT Activated | Unknown |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | Unknown |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | LINSTRAND BALLOONS LTD. |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | MAESBURY ROAD |
| Aircraft Owner City | SHROPSHIRE |
| Aircraft Owner State | OF |
| Aircraft Owner Country | |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 00000 |
| Operator is an individual? | -- |
| Operator Name | |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Street Address | |
| Operator City | |
| Operator State | |
| Operator Country | |
| Operator Zip code | |
| Operator Code | |
| Owner has at least one certificate | None |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | No |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | Unknown |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | -- |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | -- |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | -- |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Unknown |
| Second Pilot on Board | No |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | NONE |
| Departure City | ALBUQUERQUE |
| Departure State | NM |
| Departure Country | |
| Departure Time | 0 |
| Departure Time Zone | |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | |
| Destination City | |
| Destination State | |
| Destination Country | |
| Specific Phase of Flight | Landing |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Jan 2 2001 10:35AM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 0 |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |