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Atlas / NTSB / DEN77DQA15

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event DEN77DQA15

1977-01-28 ANGEL FIRE, New Mexico, United States None 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

BELL 47G3B1 · N1383X

Damage

Substantial

Craft type

Balloon

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

D1

Operator type

E

Airport

ANGEL FIRE

Kind of flying

CE

Weather at impact

Sky

CLEAR

Aircraft history

Serial number

000000006580

Total time

4,541 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

GA (GA)

Total hours

6,042

Age

40

Investigator remarks

T/R DRIVE SHORTSHAFT SEPARATED DISENGAGING T/R.

Cause factors

  • 78/A/BG A
    ROTORCRAFT TAIL ROTOR DRIVE SHAFT ASSEMBLY Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 88/C/95 C
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS MATERIAL FAILURE Cause
  • 64/B/48 B
    PILOT IN COMMAND MISJUDGED DISTANCE AND ALTITUDE
  • 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 0566. Source file NTSB_1977_3_0566.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.