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Atlas / NTSB / FTW81DRG40

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event FTW81DRG40

1981-06-11 EAGLE PASS, 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

BELL 47G-4 · N7948S

Damage

Substantial

Craft type

Balloon

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

DC

Operator type

D

Kind of flying

B2

Weather at impact

Sky

SCATTERED-ABOVE 1000 FEET

Wind

135° / 5 kt

Temp

90° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

000000007571

Total time

10,656 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Flight instructor (CFI)

Total hours

10,000

Age

51

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

LNDG TO AVOID WIRES.

Investigator remarks

LOST ENG PWR WHILE HERDING CATTLE.MNVRD ACFT DRG

Cause factors

  • 64/C/08 C
    PILOT IN COMMAND DIVERTED ATTENTION FROM OPERATION OF AIRCRAFT Cause
  • 64/C/32 C
    PILOT IN COMMAND MISMANAGEMENT OF FUEL Cause
  • 88/C/63 C
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS FUEL EXHAUSTION Cause
  • 83/K/I K
    TERRAIN HIGH OBSTRUCTIONS Joint factor
  • 84/K/7 K
    MISCELLANEOUS EVASIVE MANEUVER TO AVOID COLLISION 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 1545. Source file NTSB_1981_3_1545.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.