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Atlas / NTSB / IAD78FKW11

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event IAD78FKW11

1978-09-10 COLUMBIA, Tennessee, 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 269A · N8808F

Damage

Substantial

Craft type

Balloon

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

D6

Operator type

Personal/private

Kind of flying

B0

Weather at impact

Sky

CLEAR

Temp

88° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

0000122-0141

Total time

2,970 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial

Total hours

1,000

Age

38

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

N UNINTENTIONAL.M/R SEVERED TAILBOOM.

Investigator remarks

PRACTICING AUTOROTATIONS WITH PWR RCVRY.TOUCHDOW

Cause factors

  • 64/A/52 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND MISJUDGED ALTITUDE AND CLEARANCE Cause — pilot/personnel action

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 2798. Source file NTSB_1978_3_2798.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.