Accident to the Chaize JZ34 registered F-HMOP operated by Extraim montgolfière on 24/09/23 at Claveyson

This is a courtesy translation by the BEA of the Final Report on the Safety Investigation. As accurate as the translation may be, the original text in French is the work of reference.

Note: the following information is principally based on the pilot’s statement. This information has not been independently validated by the BEA.

1. History of the flight

The pilot took off from a field in Lens-Lestang (Drôme) with three passengers. After a flight time of approximately 45 min near Claveyson (Drôme), the pilot started the descent to land in a field. The basket bounced on contact with the ground, a gust of wind pushed the balloon towards a road and a power line. The envelope of the balloon came into contact with and then collapsed onto the power line.

2. Additional information

The initial point of contact with the ground was situated at around 200 m from the power line. The basket was resting on the ground and had not sustained any damage. Several panels of the balloon enveloped had melted on contact with the power line and a tear of around 50 cm was observed.

The pilot, who held a Balloon Pilot Licence (BPL) obtained in 2002 along with the commercial operation and group A hot-air balloon class ratings, had totalled more than 700 flights.

The pilot stated that the weather forecasts indicated a wind of 5 to 10 km/h but that during the flight, he had at times observed a wind of 20 to 25 km/h.  He added that the environment that they flew over was hilly with a lot of cultivated fields. He specified that he chose a non-cultivated field situated at a certain height for the landing.

According to him, the landing proceeded normally. Nevertheless, the basket bounced and a gust of wind pushed the balloon up the field towards the road and a power line against which the envelope stopped. He thought that at the time of the landing he might not have sufficiently pulled on the line controlling the rapid deflation valve.

The meteorological conditions recorded by the weather station located in the Claveyson district in the minutes preceding the accident indicated a north-north-east wind of 6 to 8 km/h with gusts up to 15 km/h in the last 30 min.