Atlas / NTSB / FTW79FRD55

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event FTW79FRD55

1979-09-18 PATTERSON, Louisiana, United States None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N155AL

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

H&S AVIATION LLC LIGHTNING

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A0DCCD

Registrant of record

IRVIN ROGER H

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

N155AL Bell 206B 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

BELL 206B · N155AL

Damage

Substantial

Craft type

Balloon

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

B9

Operator type

E

Airport

OFFSHORE HELIPORT

Kind of flying

B3

Weather at impact

Sky

SCATTERED-ABOVE 1000 FEET

Wind

070° / 25 kt

Temp

80° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

000000001707

Total time

3,309 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial

Total hours

4,819

Age

51

Investigator remarks

TAIL ROTOR STRUCK GUARD RAIL DRG HOVER.

Cause factors

64/A/54 A
PILOT IN COMMAND MISJUDGED CLEARANCE 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 2511. Source file NTSB_1979_3_2511.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.