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Atlas / NTSB / FTW81FRA30

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event FTW81FRA30

1981-05-13 HOUSTON, 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

HUGHES 269C · N7413F

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Balloon

Classification

Accident

Light condition

E

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

DC

Operator type

D

Kind of flying

B0

Weather at impact

Sky

CLEAR

Wind

180° / 5 kt

Temp

80° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

000000660512

Total time

1,450 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial — instrument

Total hours

4,200

Age

40

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

ENG LOST PWR AT NGT,SKID HIT WTR BFR FLARING.

Investigator remarks

OBSD AT LOW ALT,NOSED OVR IN CHANNEL.PLT STATED

Cause factors

  • 74/C/KA C
    POWERPLANT POWERPLANT FAILURE FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS Cause
  • 88/K/14 K
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS UNWARRANTED LOW FLYING Joint factor
  • 88/K/88 K
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS AIRCRAFT CAME TO REST IN WATER 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 1987. Source file NTSB_1981_3_1987.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.