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Atlas / NTSB / MKC71FDM45

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event MKC71FDM45

1971-02-14 BUFFALO, Minnesota, United States None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N3999

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

PIPER PA-32-301

Year of manufacture

1981

Engine

LYCOMING IO-540 SER (300 hp)

Seats / Engines

7 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19810227

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A4A7CB

Registrant of record

INTERNATIONAL AIR SERVICE INC TRUSTEE

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

PIPER PA-18 · N3999

Damage

Substantial

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

B2

Operator type

D

Kind of flying

B0

Weather at impact

Sky

CLEAR

Aircraft history

Serial number

0000018-4788

Total time

3,583 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial — instrument

Total hours

433

Age

33

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

AXI R SKI HIT UNK OBJECT.

Investigator remarks

ABORTED TKOF DUE WET SNOW CLINGING TO SKIS.DRG T

Cause factors

  • 83/A/E A
    TERRAIN HIDDEN OBSTRUCTIONS Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 83/J/B J
    TERRAIN SNOW-COVERED 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 0713. Source file NTSB_1971_3_0713.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.