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Atlas / NTSB / FTW81DQD35

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event FTW81DQD35

1981-09-26 WEED, New Mexico, United States Minor 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

GRUM AMER AA-1B · N9978L

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

DC

Operator type

Personal/private

Kind of flying

B0

Weather at impact

Sky

CLEAR

Wind

170° / 10 kt

Temp

78° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

000AA-1B0278

Total time

1,450 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial — instrument

Total hours

149

Age

37

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

URN OVR RISING TRRN.D/A APRX 10200FT.

Investigator remarks

NAVIGATING BY FLWG ROADS,TOOK WRONG ROAD.UN TO T

Cause factors

  • 64/A/03 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND BECAME LOST/DISORIENTED Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 64/A/45 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND MISJUDGED DISTANCE,SPEED,AND ALTITUDE Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 88/A/20 A
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS FLEW INTO BLIND CANYON Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 82/J/M J
    WEATHER DOWNDRAFT,UPDRAFTS Joint cause
  • 82/J/W J
    WEATHER HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE 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 2534. Source file NTSB_1981_3_2534.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.