Skip to content

Atlas / NTSB / DEN80FQA19

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event DEN80FQA19

1980-02-25 TAOS, New Mexico, United States Serious 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N421NM

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

BEECH A45

Year of manufacture

1961 · 19 years old at event

Engine

CONT MOTOR O-470 SERIES (230 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19610224

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A5008E

Registrant of record

WINGS OVER THE ROCKIES AIR & SPACE MUSEUM

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

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

BEECH A-45 · N421NM

Damage

Substantial

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

D1

Operator type

J

Kind of flying

DE

Weather at impact

Sky

SCATTERED-ABOVE 1000 FEET

Aircraft history

Serial number

00000000G720

Total time

7,560 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial

Total hours

7,000

Age

40

Investigator remarks

CRASHED ON MTN APRX 12000FT MSL.

Cause factors

  • 64/A/20 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND FAILED TO FOLLOW APPROVED PROCEDURES,DIRECTIVES,ETC. Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 64/A/17 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND MISJUDGED DISTANCE,SPEED,ALTITUDE OR CLEARANCE Cause — pilot/personnel action

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 1985. Source file NTSB_1980_3_1985.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.