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Atlas / NTSB / LAX73AL022

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX73AL022

1972-11-07 SANTA YNEZ, California, 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

BEECH 35C33A · N7953M

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dusk

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

D9

Operator type

Personal/private

Kind of flying

B2

Weather at impact

Sky

OVERCAST

Aircraft history

Serial number

0000000CE-83

Total time

1,371 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial — instrument

Total hours

1,294

Age

41

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

T ACTUAL WEA FLT.STROBE LTS FOUND IN ON POS.

Investigator remarks

LOST CTL DURING IFR DESCENT.PLT HAD LITTLE RECEN

Cause factors

  • 64/A/66 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND SPATIAL DISORIENTATION Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 64/J/31 J
    PILOT IN COMMAND LACK OF FAMILIARITY WITH AIRCRAFT Joint cause
  • 64/J/19 J
    PILOT IN COMMAND FAILED TO USE OR INCORRECTLY USED MISC.EQUIPMENT Joint 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 4082. Source file NTSB_1972_3_4082.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.