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Atlas / NTSB / LAX80FA114

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX80FA114

1979-12-20 SAFFORD, 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

PIPER PA-32R · N9877K

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dusk

Weather

IMC

Phase of flight

D1

Operator type

Personal/private

Kind of flying

B0

Weather at impact

Sky

OVERCAST

Wind

195° / 15 kt

Temp

32° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

0032R7880039

Total time

1,100 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial

Total hours

3,100

Age

46

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

000FT.MTN TOPS OBSCD.RECOVERY DATE-6/24/80.

Investigator remarks

ELEV OF CRASH SITE-9200FT.CLDS/ICG CONDS ABV 10,

Cause factors

  • 64/A/04 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND CONTINUED VFR FLIGHT INTO ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 82/J/A J
    WEATHER LOW CEILING Joint cause
  • 82/J/F J
    WEATHER ICING CONDITIONS-INCLUDES SLEET,FREEZING RAIN,ETC. 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 3436. Source file NTSB_1979_3_3436.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.