Atlas / NTSB / FTW66A0004

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event FTW66A0004

1965-07-14 ALAMO, Texas, United States None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

N8725F Hughes 269A None

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

HUGHES 269A · N8725F

Damage

Substantial

Craft type

Balloon

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

EB

Operator type

Part 135 (air taxi/commuter)

Airport

SCHMITT STRIP

Kind of flying

CB

Weather at impact

Sky

CLEAR

Aircraft history

Total time

916 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Flight instructor (CFI)

Total hours

5,000

Age

36

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

DE SEVERED TAIL ROTOR DRIVE SHAFT DURING LANDING.

Investigator remarks

NO.1 PISTON CONNECTING ROD FAILED.MAIN ROTOR BLA

Cause factors

74/C/AC C
POWERPLANT MASTER AND CONNECTING RODS Cause
88/C/95 C
MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS MATERIAL FAILURE 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 2 0500. Source file NTSB_1965_2_0500.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.

TallyAero Live Wire Aviation press

Entity-clustered aviation events in the press — last 24 hr + 30-day archive.

NTSB CAROL Agency ↗

Official agency record + docket.

NTSB Docket Agency ↗

Investigative docket: factual reports, photos, transcripts.

Aviation Safety Network Aviation press ↗

Long-running aviation incident database (Flight Safety Foundation).

Kathryn's Report Aviation press ↗

Community NTSB synthesis blog — often has photos and witness reports.

Aviation Herald Aviation press ↗

Gold-standard aviation incident blog.