Skip to content

Atlas / NTSB / LAX77FUJ78

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX77FUJ78

1977-08-07 MESA, Arizona, 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

BELLANCA 14-13 · N86769

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

Takeoff — initial climb (C1)

Operator type

D

Airport

FALCON FIELD

Kind of flying

B0

Weather at impact

Sky

SCATTERED-ABOVE 1000 FEET

Wind

170° / 4 kt

Aircraft history

Serial number

000000001130

Total time

1,450 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial — instrument

Total hours

530

Age

41

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

FUNCTION FOUND ON TEAR DOWN.

Investigator remarks

DENSITY ALT 3700FT.UNAPPROVED PROP.NO ENGINE MAL

Cause factors

  • 64/A/24 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND PREMATURE LIFT-OFF Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 64/A/23 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND IMPROPER OPERATION OF FLIGHT CONTROLS Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 83/J/I J
    TERRAIN HIGH OBSTRUCTIONS Joint cause
  • 82/J/W J
    WEATHER HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE Joint cause
  • 74/J/FY J
    POWERPLANT OTHER Joint cause
  • 88/J/46 J
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS WRONG PART 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 2978. Source file NTSB_1977_3_2978.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.