NTSB CAROL · Event
Event DEN76FTC02
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
HILLER ACFT UH12L4 · N9727C
Damage
Destroyed
Craft type
Balloon
Classification
Accident
Light condition
Dawn
Weather
VMC
Phase of flight
C8
Operator type
Personal/private
Kind of flying
CS
Weather at impact
Sky
CLEAR
Temp
48° F
Aircraft history
Serial number
000000002506
Total time
2,713 hrs
Pilot
Certificate
Flight instructor (CFI)
Total hours
7,329
Age
42
Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)
O LIFT LOAD. DENSITY ALT 14700FT.
Investigator remarks
SETTLED WITH PWR INTO SLING LOAD ON 3RD ATTMPT T
Cause factors
- 64/A/29 A PILOT IN COMMAND INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PREPARATION AND/OR PLANNING Cause — pilot/personnel action
- 88/A/76 A MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS IMPROPERLY LOADED AIRCRAFT-WEIGHT-AND/OR C.G. Cause — pilot/personnel action
- 82/J/W J WEATHER HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE 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 1632.
Source file
NTSB_1975_3_1632.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.