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Atlas / NTSB / CHI73DEC04

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CHI73DEC04

1972-08-26 TROY, Michigan, 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 269A · N8889F

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Balloon

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

D9

Operator type

Personal/private

Airport

GRAND PRIX

Kind of flying

CF

Weather at impact

Sky

UNKNOWN/NOT REPORTED

Aircraft history

Serial number

0000073-2064

Total time

960 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

DA (DA)

Total hours

3,998

Age

30

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

ED.

Investigator remarks

UNOCCUPIED HELICOPTER BECAME AIRBORNE THEN CRASH

Cause factors

  • 64/A/74 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND LEFT AIRCRAFT UNATTENDED, ENGINE RUNNING Cause — pilot/personnel action

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 3027. Source file NTSB_1972_3_3027.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.