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Atlas / NTSB / FTW82DA033

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event FTW82DA033

1981-12-24 GULF OF MEXICO, Gulf of America, United States Fatal 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

AEROSPATLE AS350D · N3606U

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Balloon

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

D1

Operator type

E

Kind of flying

CI

Weather at impact

Sky

OVERCAST

Wind

050° / 26 kt

Temp

55° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

000000001233

Total time

825 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial

Total hours

2,704

Age

38

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

MED & ACTUATED SYS.

Investigator remarks

R FLOAT DID NOT INFLATE WHEN PLT ELECTRICALLY AR

Cause factors

  • 74/C/KA C
    POWERPLANT POWERPLANT FAILURE FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS Cause
  • 70/B/CH B
    AIRFRAME FLOAT ASSEMBLIES
  • 88/B/95 B
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS MATERIAL FAILURE
  • 83/K/G K
    TERRAIN ROUGH WATER 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 3348. Source file NTSB_1981_3_3348.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.