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Atlas / NTSB / FTW66A0026

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event FTW66A0026

1965-09-05 ORPUS CHRISTI, Texas, United States Minor 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N3J

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

NORTHROP F-5A

Year of manufacture

1967

Engine

GE J85 SER

Seats / Engines

1 seats · 2 engines

Last airworthiness date

20110303

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A31B68

Registrant of record

DILLON PRECISION INC

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

THOMPSON B8M · N3J

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Balloon

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

Cruise climb (DB)

Operator type

D

Airport

CUDDIHY FIELD

Kind of flying

DB

Weather at impact

Sky

CLEAR

Wind

130° / 15 kt

Temp

88° F

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial — instrument

Total hours

300

Age

42

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

S CERTIFICATE AFTER ENGINE INSTALLATION.

Investigator remarks

PILOT TIME IN AIRCRAFT 9 MINUTES.NO AIRWORTHINES

Cause factors

  • 64/A/16 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND FAILED TO OBTAIN/MAINTAIN FLYING SPEED Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 64/A/33 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND EXERCISED POOR JUDGMENT Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 82/J/H J
    WEATHER UNFAVORABLE WIND CONDITIONS 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 2 0576. Source file NTSB_1965_2_0576.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.