Aerostar International Inc RX 8 N50466 accident near Page, Arizona

Probable cause

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

NTSB analysis

The pilot of the balloon reported that while selecting an alternate landing area, both burners failed to ignite. The pilot unsuccessfully attempted to restart both burners with the piezo igniters. The pilot then took out a butane lighter to manually relight a pilot light, but he still could not relight it in time to arrest the balloon’s descent. The pilot informed the passengers that they were going to hit the ground hard. The basket hit a parked car, tilted downward momentarily, and then bounced off the road. After the basket contacted the ground and climbed 6 to 10 feet above ground level, one of the passengers fell out of the balloon and sustained a serious injury. With one fewer passenger, the balloon began to ascend. During that time, the pilot found one of the blast valves operative. No further malfunctions were observed for the duration of the flight.

A functional test and burner examination was completed with no defects noted that would have precluded normal operation.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for WPR24LA029 for the full record.