Atlas / NTSB / FTW81FA080

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event FTW81FA080

1981-04-26 HOUSTON, Texas, United States Serious 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

N124EA Piper PA-31 Serious

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

PIPER PA-31 · N124EA

Damage

Substantial

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

Takeoff — initial climb (C1)

Operator type

E

Airport

HOBBY

Kind of flying

CI

Weather at impact

Sky

SCATTERED-ABOVE 1000 FEET

Wind

130° / 13 kt

Temp

82° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

0031-7652159

Total time

10,860 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

DA (DA)

Total hours

2,927

Age

32

Investigator remarks

REFUELED WITH JET A.

Cause factors

68/C/D2 C
PERSONNEL IMPROPERLY SERVICED AIRCRAFT (GROUND CREW) Cause
65/C/29 C
COPILOT Cause
88/L/37 L
MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS FUEL GRADE-IMPROPER
88/L/48 L
MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS FAILURE OF TWO OR MORE ENGINES
88/K/DG K
MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS INTENTIONAL WHEELS-UP 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 0333. Source file NTSB_1981_3_0333.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.