Cameron Balloons Us A-180 N65059 accident near Questa, New Mexico

Probable cause

The hard landing after both burner pilot lights extinguished during the landing approach. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's inability to relight the burner pilot lights.

NTSB analysis

The pilot reported that he was preparing to land the commercial balloon and was switching the burners' propane tanks when both burner pilot lights extinguished. The pilot tried to reignite a pilot light with the piezoelectric igniter, but, when he pushed the igniter button to generate a spark, it got stuck in the igniter sleeve. The pilot then took out his strikers to manually relight a pilot light, but he still could not relight it. At this point, the balloon was about 150 ft above the ground, and the pilot prepared the passengers for a hard landing. The balloon struck the ground hard, skipped, and traveled about 30 ft before coming to rest. Two passengers sustained leg fractures; the balloon was not damaged. The piezoelectric igniter had an adjustment screw that, if tightened too firmly, can cause the button to stick in the igniter sleeve when actuated. It is likely that the piezoelectric igniter was tightened too firmly, which caused the igniter sleeve to get stuck when the pilot attempted to use it to relight a pilot light. It is also likely that, during the pilot's attempts to manually relight a pilot light with the striker, he positioned the burner such that air moved over it, which prevented the pilot light from relighting.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for CEN14LA397 for the full record.