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Atlas / NTSB / FTW81FA131

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event FTW81FA131

1981-08-15 MESQUITE, Texas, 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

BELL 206L-1 · N3887W

Damage

Substantial

Craft type

Balloon

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

EB

Operator type

E

Airport

MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

Kind of flying

DC

Weather at impact

Sky

SCATTERED-ABOVE 1000 FEET

Wind

180° / 5 kt

Temp

93° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

000000045479

Total time

501 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

GA (GA)

Total hours

3,156

Age

29

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

OSE,VLV WOULD RMN FULL OPEN,MAX PWR APRX 285 SHP.

Investigator remarks

B-NUT LOOSE ON PR LN AT ENG BLEED VLV.W B-NUT LO

Cause factors

  • 68/C/D6 C
    PERSONNEL INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE AND INSPECTION Cause
  • 74/C/W5 C
    POWERPLANT OTHER Cause
  • 88/C/CB C
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS IMPROPERLY INSTALLED Cause
  • 88/C/AU C
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS UNDER TORQUED Cause
  • 88/C/AJ C
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS LEAK/LEAKAGE 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 2554. Source file NTSB_1981_3_2554.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.