NTSB CAROL · Event
Event FTW81FA105
Registry · N555AM
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
PIPER PA-32RT-300
Year of manufacture
1978 · 3 years old at event
Engine
LYCOMING IO-540 SER (300 hp)
Seats / Engines
7 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
19780608
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A7120A
Registrant of record
EDGEWATER VENTURES LLC
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
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
SWEARINGEN SA226T · N555AM
Damage
Destroyed
Craft type
Airplane
Classification
Accident
Light condition
Dusk
Weather
IMC
Phase of flight
D9
Operator type
Personal/private
Kind of flying
DY
Weather at impact
Sky
UNKNOWN/NOT REPORTED
Temp
72° F
Aircraft history
Serial number
00000000T201
Total time
2,900 hrs
Pilot
Certificate
Commercial
Age
43
Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)
S.
Investigator remarks
AC LOADED WITH MARIJUANA.SEVERE TSTMS IN PROGRES
Cause factors
- 64/A/04 A PILOT IN COMMAND CONTINUED VFR FLIGHT INTO ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS Cause — pilot/personnel action
- 64/A/66 A PILOT IN COMMAND SPATIAL DISORIENTATION Cause — pilot/personnel action
- 82/J/X J WEATHER THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY Joint cause
- 88/J/88 J MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS AIRCRAFT CAME TO REST IN WATER 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 1209.
Source file
NTSB_1981_3_1209.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.
Entity-clustered aviation events in the press — last 24 hr + 30-day archive.
Official agency record + docket.
Investigative docket: factual reports, photos, transcripts.
Long-running aviation incident database (Flight Safety Foundation).
Community NTSB synthesis blog — often has photos and witness reports.
Gold-standard aviation incident blog.
Aviation industry news search.
GA pilot forum — informed but rumor-prone.
GA pilot subreddit search.
Tail-number page — flight history (free tier limited).
AOPA Air Safety Institute search.
Mainstream press coverage. Recent events only.
Privacy-preserving news search.
External links open in a new tab. We don't ingest their content; we deep-link search queries.