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Atlas / NTSB / FTW78FA027

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event FTW78FA027

1978-02-16 AMARILLO, Texas, United States Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N39L

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

COBEAN RICHARD W RUTAN VARIEZE

Year of manufacture

1990

Engine

CONT MOTOR 0-200 SERIES (100 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19910923

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A4816A

Registrant of record

SCHABABERLE MARK J

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

CESSNA 340 · N39L

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

IMC

Phase of flight

Cruise — level (EA)

Operator type

D

Kind of flying

B2

Weather at impact

Sky

OVERCAST

Wind

130° / 12 kt

Temp

26° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

0000340-0210

Total time

2,086 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial

Total hours

1,599

Age

38

Cause factors

  • 64/A/08 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND DIVERTED ATTENTION FROM OPERATION OF AIRCRAFT Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 64/A/53 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND MISJUDGED ALTITUDE Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 83/J/B J
    TERRAIN SNOW-COVERED Joint cause
  • 82/J/A J
    WEATHER LOW CEILING Joint cause
  • 82/J/D J
    WEATHER SNOW 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 0345. Source file NTSB_1978_3_0345.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type. Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗