NTSB CAROL · Event
Event MKC70D0172
Registry · N8973R
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
CHAMPION 7EC
Year of manufacture
1960 · 9 years old at event
Engine
CONT MOTOR C90 SERIES (95 hp)
Seats / Engines
2 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
19600629
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S AC6226
Registrant of record
DILLIHA STEVE G
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
CHAMPION 7EC · N8973R
Damage
Substantial
Craft type
Airplane
Classification
Accident
Light condition
Dawn
Weather
VMC
Phase of flight
B1
Operator type
D
Airport
PIERRE
Kind of flying
B0
Weather at impact
Sky
CLEAR
Wind
310° / 22 kt
Aircraft history
Serial number
000000000014
Total time
1,706 hrs
Pilot
Certificate
Commercial — instrument
Total hours
80
Age
20
Investigator remarks
WIND GUSTING 35K.
Cause factors
- 64/A/33 A PILOT IN COMMAND EXERCISED POOR JUDGMENT Cause — pilot/personnel action
- 64/A/29 A PILOT IN COMMAND INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PREPARATION AND/OR PLANNING Cause — pilot/personnel action
- 82/J/H J WEATHER UNFAVORABLE WIND CONDITIONS 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 3721.
Source file
NTSB_1969_3_3721.txt.
Modern CAROL record on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Beyond the agency record
Search this event elsewhere.
Pre-filled searches into the sources where news + community discussion of aviation events lives. External sources are reported, not agency. Treat them as signal that something happened, not as fact about what happened.
Entity-clustered aviation events in the press — last 24 hr + 30-day archive.
Official agency record + docket.
Investigative docket: factual reports, photos, transcripts.
Long-running aviation incident database (Flight Safety Foundation).
Community NTSB synthesis blog — often has photos and witness reports.
Gold-standard aviation incident blog.
Aviation industry news search.
GA pilot forum — informed but rumor-prone.
GA pilot subreddit search.
Tail-number page — flight history (free tier limited).
AOPA Air Safety Institute search.
Mainstream press coverage. Recent events only.
Privacy-preserving news search.
External links open in a new tab. We don't ingest their content; we deep-link search queries.