Atlas / NTSB / MIA74AM096

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event MIA74AM096

1974-05-23 KEY WEST, Florida, United States Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Aircraft involved

N9621F Hughes 269C 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

HUGHES 269C · N9621F

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Balloon

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

D1

Operator type

Personal/private

Airport

NAS KEY WEST

Kind of flying

CY

Weather at impact

Sky

SCATTERED-ABOVE 1000 FEET

Wind

170° / 9 kt

Temp

84° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

000000800035

Total time

1,375 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial

Total hours

1,900

Age

25

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

UGS CKD,2 UNSERVICEABLE,3 BADLY WORN,2 OK.

Investigator remarks

TAIL BOOM STRUCK GROUND AND SEPARATED.7 SPARK PL

Cause factors

68/C/D6 C
PERSONNEL INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE AND INSPECTION Cause
74/C/BC C
POWERPLANT SPARK PLUG Cause
88/C/BQ C
MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS EXCESSIVE-WEAR/PLAY Cause
64/B/49 B
PILOT IN COMMAND MISJUDGED SPEED AND ALTITUDE
82/K/W K
WEATHER HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE Joint factor
83/K/I K
TERRAIN HIGH OBSTRUCTIONS Joint factor
88/K/76 K
MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS IMPROPERLY LOADED AIRCRAFT-WEIGHT-AND/OR C.G. Joint factor

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 1826. Source file NTSB_1974_3_1826.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

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