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Atlas / NTSB / CHI78FET35

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event CHI78FET35

1977-09-18 BENTON HARBOR, Michigan, United States Fatal 2 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-18 · N82328

Damage

Substantial

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

EB

Operator type

Personal/private

Airport

ROSS FIELD

Kind of flying

DC

Weather at impact

Sky

SCATTERED-ABOVE 1000 FEET

Aircraft history

Serial number

000015280508

Total time

224 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial — instrument

Total hours

649

Age

31

Investigator remarks

COLLIDED WITH MOTORCYCLIST.

Cause factors

  • 64/A/16 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND FAILED TO OBTAIN/MAINTAIN FLYING SPEED Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 64/A/33 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND EXERCISED POOR JUDGMENT Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 88/J/14 J
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS UNWARRANTED LOW FLYING Joint cause
  • 88/J/06 J
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS DISREGARD OF GOOD OPERATING PRACTICE 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 4005. Source file NTSB_1977_3_4005.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.