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Atlas / NTSB / LAX81FA128

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event LAX81FA128

1981-09-19 CAREFREE, 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

ERCO 415-D · N3123H

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

Takeoff — initial climb (C1)

Operator type

D

Airport

CAREFREE

Kind of flying

B0

Weather at impact

Sky

SCATTERED-ABOVE 1000 FEET

Wind

060° / 5 kt

Temp

85° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

000000003748

Total time

1,872 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial — instrument

Age

48

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

T ABV ARPT ELEV,1.04MI FM ARPT.OVR MAX GROSS WT.

Investigator remarks

D/A APRX 5000FT.CRASHED ON RISING TRRN APRX 132F

Cause factors

  • 64/A/29 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PREPARATION AND/OR PLANNING Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 64/A/45 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND MISJUDGED DISTANCE,SPEED,AND ALTITUDE Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 82/J/W J
    WEATHER HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE Joint cause
  • 88/J/76 J
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS IMPROPERLY LOADED AIRCRAFT-WEIGHT-AND/OR C.G. 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 2303. Source file NTSB_1981_3_2303.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.