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Atlas / NTSB / MKC79DER12

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event MKC79DER12

1978-12-15 HINCKLEY, Minnesota, United States Minor 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

AEROSPATIAL SA315B · N49538

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Balloon

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

C2

Operator type

E

Kind of flying

CK

Weather at impact

Sky

CLEAR

Aircraft history

Serial number

000000002503

Total time

547 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial

Total hours

4,211

Age

33

Probable cause (from PRE1982.MDB)

LOAD FROZEN TO THE GROUND.

Investigator remarks

HOOK RELEASE ELECTRICAL PLUG FOUND DISCONNECTED.

Cause factors

  • 64/A/29 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PREPARATION AND/OR PLANNING Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 76/A/CD A
    INSTRUMENTS/EQUIPMENT AND ACCESSORIES PICK-UP EQUIPMENT Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 88/A/BM A
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS DISCONNECTED Cause — pilot/personnel action

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 3807. Source file NTSB_1978_3_3807.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.