Atlas / NTSB / FTW78FPD27

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event FTW78FPD27

1978-07-28 RANGER, Texas, United States None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N4574N

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

BEECH D17S

Year of manufacture

1944 · 34 years old at event

Engine

P&W R-985 SERIES (450 hp)

Seats / Engines

5 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19560713

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A58F0E

Registrant of record

STEARMAN AVIATION INC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

N4574N Beech D-17S 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

BEECH D-17S · N4574N

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

D1

Operator type

D

Kind of flying

B2

Weather at impact

Sky

SCATTERED-ABOVE 1000 FEET

Wind

160° / 8 kt

Temp

92° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

000000006727

Total time

1,910 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial — instrument

Total hours

190

Age

31

Investigator remarks

MASSIVE INTERNAL DESTRUCTION OF ENG.

Cause factors

74/C/KA C
POWERPLANT POWERPLANT FAILURE FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS Cause
83/K/F K
TERRAIN ROUGH/UNEVEN Joint factor

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 2255. Source file NTSB_1978_3_2255.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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