Atlas / NTSB / DEN79FA002

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event DEN79FA002

1978-10-04 LITTLETON, Colorado, United States Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

N6071L GRUM AMER AA5 Fatal

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

GRUM AMER AA5 · N6071L

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

Takeoff — initial climb (C1)

Operator type

D

Airport

STAPLETON INTL

Kind of flying

B0

Weather at impact

Sky

CLEAR

Wind

070° / 7 kt

Temp

55° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

0000AA5-0171

Total time

1,658 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial — instrument

Total hours

71

Age

22

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

RIED TO REACH ARAPAHOE,11MI S OF STAPLETON.

Investigator remarks

#3 CYL FATIGUE,METAL FOLDS BETWEEN BARREL FINS.T

Cause factors

74/C/AD C
POWERPLANT CYLINDER ASSEMBLY Cause
88/C/36 C
MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS FATIGUE FRACTURE Cause
64/B/20 B
PILOT IN COMMAND FAILED TO FOLLOW APPROVED PROCEDURES,DIRECTIVES,ETC.
88/B/07 B
MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS IMPROPER EMERGENCY PROCEDURES
68/L/D6 L
PERSONNEL INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE AND INSPECTION
68/L/J0 L
PERSONNEL SUBSTANDARD QUALITY CONTROL
84/L/E L
MISCELLANEOUS SMOKE IN COCKPIT

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 4417. Source file NTSB_1978_3_4417.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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