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Atlas / NTSB / ATL81FA072

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ATL81FA072

1981-05-12 SMYRNA, Tennessee, 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-30 · N7512Y

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

ED

Operator type

Business

Airport

SMYRNA

Kind of flying

B0

Weather at impact

Sky

OVERCAST

Wind

010° / 6 kt

Temp

51° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

00000030-576

Total time

2,996 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial

Total hours

5,300

Age

42

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

MAINS.PIC TOLD C/P TO STAY ON MAINS AFTER ENG QUIT

Investigator remarks

MAIN TANKS EMPTY,AUX TANKS HAD FUEL.FUEL SEL.ON

Cause factors

  • 64/C/32 C
    PILOT IN COMMAND MISMANAGEMENT OF FUEL Cause
  • 88/C/96 C
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS FUEL STARVATION Cause
  • 64/B/20 B
    PILOT IN COMMAND FAILED TO FOLLOW APPROVED PROCEDURES,DIRECTIVES,ETC.
  • 88/B/07 B
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS IMPROPER EMERGENCY PROCEDURES
  • 88/L/48 L
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS FAILURE OF TWO OR MORE ENGINES

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 1191. Source file NTSB_1981_3_1191.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.