Atlas / NTSB / ATL81FA104

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ATL81FA104

1981-07-31 STEVENSVILLE, Maryland, United States Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

N8423J Varga 2150A Fatal

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

VARGA 2150A · N8423J

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

D1

Operator type

Part 121 (air carrier)

Airport

BAYBRIDGE

Kind of flying

A0

Weather at impact

Sky

SCATTERED-ABOVE 1000 FEET

Wind

110° / 6 kt

Temp

85° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

000015066332

Total time

639 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Flight instructor (CFI)

Total hours

2,111

Age

25

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

-26,FAILED.EMERG AD 81-17-05 ISSUED TO INSP/RPLC.

Investigator remarks

LOST CTL DRG PRCTNRY LNDG.ELEV HORN,PN VAC 6000K

Cause factors

68/A/J2 A
PERSONNEL POOR/INADEQUATE DESIGN Cause — pilot/personnel action
75/A/CC A
SYSTEMS ELEVATOR AND ELEVATOR TAB CONTROL SYSTEM Cause — pilot/personnel action
88/A/36 A
MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS FATIGUE FRACTURE Cause — pilot/personnel action
88/J/88 J
MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS AIRCRAFT CAME TO REST IN WATER 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 2084. Source file NTSB_1981_3_2084.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Beyond the agency record

Search this event elsewhere.

Pre-filled searches into the sources where news + community discussion of aviation events lives. External sources are reported, not agency. Treat them as signal that something happened, not as fact about what happened.

TallyAero Live Wire Aviation press

Entity-clustered aviation events in the press — last 24 hr + 30-day archive.

NTSB CAROL Agency ↗

Official agency record + docket.

NTSB Docket Agency ↗

Investigative docket: factual reports, photos, transcripts.

Aviation Safety Network Aviation press ↗

Long-running aviation incident database (Flight Safety Foundation).

Kathryn's Report Aviation press ↗

Community NTSB synthesis blog — often has photos and witness reports.

Aviation Herald Aviation press ↗

Gold-standard aviation incident blog.