Atlas / NTSB / LAX78FA041

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX78FA041

1978-04-13 MESA, Arizona, United States Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

N62845 Piper PA-23 Fatal

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

PIPER PA-23 · N62845

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

D2

Operator type

Business

Airport

SKY HARBOR

Kind of flying

B3

Weather at impact

Sky

CLEAR

Wind

110° / 5 kt

Temp

79° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

0027-7754083

Total time

301 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial

Total hours

7,900

Age

48

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

HOL IN LIVER SPECIMEN.45LBS FORCE RQD FOR LVL FLT.

Investigator remarks

PLT AWARE OF FULL NOSE DOWN TRIM. 0.10% LVL ALCO

Cause factors

64/C/01 C
PILOT IN COMMAND ATTEMPTED OPERATION W/KNOWN DEFICIENCIES IN EQUIPMENT Cause
64/C/65 C
PILOT IN COMMAND PHYSICAL IMPAIRMENT Cause
88/C/62 C
MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS PILOT FATIGUE Cause
75/L/CC L
SYSTEMS ELEVATOR AND ELEVATOR TAB CONTROL SYSTEM
88/L/BR L
MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS ERRATIC
88/L/67 L
MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS ALCOHOLIC IMPAIRMENT OF EFFICIENCY AND JUDGMENT

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 1775. Source file NTSB_1978_3_1775.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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