Skip to content

Atlas / NTSB / DEN79FA065

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event DEN79FA065

1979-09-20 DEMING, New Mexico, United States Fatal 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 47G · N2220W

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Balloon

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

Cruise climb (DB)

Operator type

E

Kind of flying

CI

Weather at impact

Sky

CLEAR

Wind

270° / 8 kt

Temp

80° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

000000006750

Total time

2,067 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial

Total hours

1,400

Age

29

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

D PWR LINES APRX 75FT AGL.

Investigator remarks

ACFT DSNDD & HIT GND AFTER PLT PULLED UP TO AVOI

Cause factors

  • 64/A/33 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND EXERCISED POOR JUDGMENT Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 88/A/14 A
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS UNWARRANTED LOW FLYING Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 84/A/7 A
    MISCELLANEOUS EVASIVE MANEUVER TO AVOID COLLISION Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 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 3956. Source file NTSB_1979_3_3956.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.