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Atlas / NTSB / LAX77FUQ22

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX77FUQ22

1977-03-25 INYOKERN, California, United States Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N20441

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

FIREFLY BALLOONS INC FIREFLY 8B-15

Year of manufacture

2006

Engine

NONE NONE

Seats / Engines

1 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

20060403

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A1A3DD

Registrant of record

JD ADVENTURES LLC

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

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

CESSNA 172M · N20441

Damage

Substantial

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dusk

Weather

IMC

Phase of flight

EJ

Operator type

D

Airport

INYOKERN

Kind of flying

B1

Weather at impact

Sky

OBSCURATION

Temp

35° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

000017261290

Total time

1,670 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial — instrument

Total hours

93

Age

47

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

SAGEBRUSH JUST BFOR IMPACT. 1ST NITE FLT IN 10 MOS

Investigator remarks

GO ARND DUE GRND FOG. PAX TOLD PLT HE COULD SEE

Cause factors

  • 64/A/27 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT DECISIONS OR PLANNING Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 64/A/53 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND MISJUDGED ALTITUDE Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 64/J/31 J
    PILOT IN COMMAND LACK OF FAMILIARITY WITH AIRCRAFT Joint cause
  • 82/J/C J
    WEATHER FOG 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 0453. Source file NTSB_1977_3_0453.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.