Atlas / NTSB / DEN72FQA14

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event DEN72FQA14

1971-08-28 TAOS, New Mexico, United States None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N98971

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

PIPER PA-12

Year of manufacture

1946 · 25 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING 0-235 SERIES (115 hp)

Seats / Engines

3 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19560219

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S ADCFFA

Registrant of record

WHITAKER ERIC LEE

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

N98971 Piper PA-12 None

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-12 · N98971

Damage

Substantial

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

Cruise — descent (EF)

Operator type

Personal/private

Airport

MILLER-KACHINA

Kind of flying

B0

Weather at impact

Sky

CLEAR

Aircraft history

Serial number

00000012-327

Total time

1,185 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial — instrument

Total hours

163

Age

28

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

SE ATTACH BOLT HAD NOT BEEN SAFETIED.

Investigator remarks

L RUDDER CABLE SEPARATED FROM RUDDER PEDAL BECAU

Cause factors

75/C/CE C
SYSTEMS RUDDER AND RUDDER TAB CONTROL SYSTEM Cause
68/C/D6 C
PERSONNEL INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE AND INSPECTION Cause
88/K/94 K
MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS OVERLOAD FAILURE 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 3230. Source file NTSB_1971_3_3230.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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