Atlas / NTSB / FTW82DQD04

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event FTW82DQD04

1981-11-24 DEMING, New Mexico, United States None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

N1089N Hughes 369D None

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 369D · N1089N

Damage

Substantial

Craft type

Balloon

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

D1

Operator type

Business

Kind of flying

CG

Weather at impact

Sky

CLEAR

Aircraft history

Serial number

000005109640

Total time

335 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

DA (DA)

Age

38

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

TO ILLUMINATE.

Investigator remarks

FUEL GAUGE INDCD 40LBS RMNG.LOW FUEL LGT FAILED

Cause factors

64/C/29 C
PILOT IN COMMAND INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PREPARATION AND/OR PLANNING Cause
64/C/32 C
PILOT IN COMMAND MISMANAGEMENT OF FUEL Cause
88/C/63 C
MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS FUEL EXHAUSTION Cause
74/L/J2 L
POWERPLANT FUEL QUANTITY GAUGE
88/L/BR L
MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS ERRATIC
74/L/J9 L
POWERPLANT OTHER

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 2543. Source file NTSB_1981_3_2543.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.