Skip to content

Atlas / NTSB / ANC82DA004

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ANC82DA004

1981-10-17 PORT HEIDEN, Alaska, United States Serious 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 · N3578W

Damage

Substantial

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

IMC

Phase of flight

DC

Operator type

E

Kind of flying

CI

Weather at impact

Sky

UNKNOWN/NOT REPORTED

Aircraft history

Serial number

00000032-471

Total time

1,452 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial

Total hours

7,450

Age

57

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

NCH,FLEW INTO NARROW CANYON,UN CLB OVR RISING TRRN

Investigator remarks

ATMTD TO CROSS MTNS THRU LOW PASS,TOOK WRONG BRA

Cause factors

  • 64/A/04 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND CONTINUED VFR FLIGHT INTO ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 64/A/27 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT DECISIONS OR PLANNING Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 88/A/20 A
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS FLEW INTO BLIND CANYON Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 82/J/A J
    WEATHER LOW CEILING Joint cause
  • 82/J/D J
    WEATHER SNOW 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 2825. Source file NTSB_1981_3_2825.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.