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Atlas / NTSB / DEN72AD039

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event DEN72AD039

1972-02-29 JACKSON, Wyoming, 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-24 · N8978P

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Z

Weather

IMC

Phase of flight

DC

Operator type

D

Kind of flying

B2

Weather at impact

Sky

OVERCAST

Aircraft history

Serial number

0000024-4436

Total time

779 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial — instrument

Total hours

644

Age

33

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

PPL OXY.R WING SEPD AT STA 143. RECOVERED 3/18/72.

Investigator remarks

CONT INTO AREA OF SVR ICG & TURB AT HI ALT WO SU

Cause factors

  • 64/C/29 C
    PILOT IN COMMAND INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PREPARATION AND/OR PLANNING Cause
  • 64/C/01 C
    PILOT IN COMMAND ATTEMPTED OPERATION W/KNOWN DEFICIENCIES IN EQUIPMENT Cause
  • 64/C/04 C
    PILOT IN COMMAND CONTINUED VFR FLIGHT INTO ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS Cause
  • 64/C/09 C
    PILOT IN COMMAND EXCEEDED DESIGNED STRESS LIMITS OF AIRCRAFT Cause
  • 82/C/F C
    WEATHER ICING CONDITIONS-INCLUDES SLEET,FREEZING RAIN,ETC. Cause
  • 82/C/L C
    WEATHER TURBULENCE, ASSOCIATED W/CLOUDS AND/OR THUNDERSTORMS Cause
  • 88/C/74 C
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS AIRFRAME ICE Cause
  • 88/L/49 L
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS SEPARATION IN FLIGHT

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 0101. Source file NTSB_1972_3_0101.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.