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Atlas / NTSB / ANC81FA008

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ANC81FA008

1980-12-12 COLD BAY, Alaska, United States Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

Historical record (pre-1982)

NTSB recorded this accident in the pre-1982 coded-field schema — structured fields rather than free-text narrative. Decoded codes use established NTSB single-letter taxonomies; cause factors remain verbatim pending the Form 6120.4 codebook lookup.

Aircraft

PIPER PA-32 · N2243Q

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dusk

Weather

IMC

Phase of flight

D1

Operator type

E

Kind of flying

CI

Weather at impact

Sky

PARTIAL OBSCURATION

Wind

020° / 20 kt

Temp

14° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

0000794-0047

Total time

1,896 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial

Total hours

3,297

Age

33

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

WND GSTG 34KTS.DARK NGT.

Investigator remarks

PLT TMTD THAT HE WAS AT 500FT,SNOWING,UN TO SEE.

Cause factors

  • 64/A/29 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PREPARATION AND/OR PLANNING Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 64/A/04 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND CONTINUED VFR FLIGHT INTO ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 64/A/52 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND MISJUDGED ALTITUDE AND CLEARANCE Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 82/J/H J
    WEATHER UNFAVORABLE WIND CONDITIONS Joint cause

Decoded against the NTSB Form 6120.4 cause-factor codebook (ct_Pre1982 table). Each row shows the raw triplet, modifier (Cause / Factor / etc.), category, and specific code.

Source: NTSB pre-1982 historical archive. Docket 3 3215. Source file NTSB_1980_3_3215.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.