NTSB CAROL · Event
Event DEN75DQA32
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 · N8810F
Damage
Substantial
Craft type
Balloon
Classification
Accident
Light condition
Dawn
Weather
VMC
Phase of flight
C5
Operator type
D
Kind of flying
B0
Weather at impact
Sky
SCATTERED-ABOVE 1000 FEET
Wind
270° / 10 kt
Temp
40° F
Aircraft history
Serial number
0000122-0143
Total time
4,137 hrs
Pilot
Certificate
Commercial — instrument
Total hours
197
Age
48
Investigator remarks
UNABLE TO CLR OBSTRUCTING TREES.
Cause factors
- 64/A/29 A PILOT IN COMMAND INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PREPARATION AND/OR PLANNING Cause — pilot/personnel action
- 64/A/17 A PILOT IN COMMAND MISJUDGED DISTANCE,SPEED,ALTITUDE OR CLEARANCE Cause — pilot/personnel action
- 64/A/06 A PILOT IN COMMAND DELAYED ACTION IN ABORTING TAKEOFF Cause — pilot/personnel action
- 84/J/7 J MISCELLANEOUS EVASIVE MANEUVER TO AVOID COLLISION Joint cause
- 83/J/I J TERRAIN HIGH OBSTRUCTIONS Joint cause
- 88/J/AQ J MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS DOWNWIND 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 0185.
Source file
NTSB_1975_3_0185.txt.
Modern CAROL record on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Beyond the agency record
Search this event elsewhere.
Pre-filled searches into the sources where news + community discussion of aviation events lives. External sources are reported, not agency. Treat them as signal that something happened, not as fact about what happened.
Entity-clustered aviation events in the press — last 24 hr + 30-day archive.
Official agency record + docket.
Investigative docket: factual reports, photos, transcripts.
Long-running aviation incident database (Flight Safety Foundation).
Community NTSB synthesis blog — often has photos and witness reports.
Gold-standard aviation incident blog.
Aviation industry news search.
GA pilot forum — informed but rumor-prone.
GA pilot subreddit search.
Tail-number page — flight history (free tier limited).
AOPA Air Safety Institute search.
Mainstream press coverage. Recent events only.
Privacy-preserving news search.
External links open in a new tab. We don't ingest their content; we deep-link search queries.