Skip to content

Atlas / NTSB / DEN74FTE32

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event DEN74FTE32

1973-12-24 WALSENBURG, Colorado, United States Serious 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

CESSNA 172D · N2324U

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

IMC

Phase of flight

DC

Operator type

Business

Kind of flying

B0

Weather at impact

Sky

OVERCAST

Wind

270° / 50 kt

Aircraft history

Serial number

000172-49924

Total time

1,556 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial — instrument

Total hours

2,400

Age

53

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

F SNOW IN BLIZZARD.WIND EST AT 50-60MPH BY SHERIFF

Investigator remarks

PLT ADV AGAINST VFR BY FSS.ACFT CRASHED IN 5FT O

Cause factors

  • 64/A/04 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND CONTINUED VFR FLIGHT INTO ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 64/A/33 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND EXERCISED POOR JUDGMENT Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 88/A/06 A
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS DISREGARD OF GOOD OPERATING PRACTICE Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 82/J/D J
    WEATHER SNOW Joint cause
  • 88/J/78 J
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS WHITEOUT Joint cause
  • 83/J/I J
    TERRAIN HIGH OBSTRUCTIONS 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 3808. Source file NTSB_1973_3_3808.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.