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Atlas / NTSB / FTW78FPA25

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event FTW78FPA25

1978-05-27 FATE, Texas, United States None 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

SCHWEIZER SGS134 · N7631

Damage

Substantial

Craft type

C

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

EB

Operator type

D

Kind of flying

B0

Weather at impact

Sky

SCATTERED-ABOVE 1000 FEET

Wind

180° / 11 kt

Temp

88° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

000000000011

Total time

880 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial — instrument

Total hours

302

Age

46

Investigator remarks

PILOT UNABLE TO FIND THERMAL LIFT.

Cause factors

  • 64/A/27 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT DECISIONS OR PLANNING Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 64/A/16 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND FAILED TO OBTAIN/MAINTAIN FLYING SPEED 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 1015. Source file NTSB_1978_3_1015.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.