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Atlas / NTSB / ATL81FIA06

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ATL81FIA06

1981-05-04 WASHINGTON, District of Columbia, United States None 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

HUGHES 269C · N7447F

Damage

Substantial

Craft type

Balloon

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

D0

Operator type

Business

Kind of flying

B3

Weather at impact

Sky

SCATTERED-ABOVE 1000 FEET

Wind

360° / 9 kt

Temp

79° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

000000560505

Total time

2,720 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial

Total hours

1,800

Age

32

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

FATIGUE CRACKS OUTER RACE SUPPORT RADIUS.

Investigator remarks

M/R SHAFT RING GR CARRIER,P/N 269A5179-3,FAILED.

Cause factors

  • 78/C/BA C
    ROTORCRAFT ENGINE DRIVE SHAFT Cause
  • 88/C/36 C
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS FATIGUE FRACTURE Cause
  • 84/B/7 B
    MISCELLANEOUS EVASIVE MANEUVER TO AVOID COLLISION
  • 83/K/I K
    TERRAIN HIGH OBSTRUCTIONS Joint factor

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 1426. Source file NTSB_1981_3_1426.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.