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Atlas / NTSB / MKC80FCQ03

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event MKC80FCQ03

1979-12-04 GARDEN CITY, Kansas, United States None 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

HUGHES 269C · N7481F

Damage

Substantial

Craft type

Balloon

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

C2

Operator type

Business

Kind of flying

B2

Weather at impact

Sky

CLEAR

Wind

225° / 20 kt

Temp

67° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

000000170575

Total time

268 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial — instrument

Total hours

2,505

Age

69

Investigator remarks

WND GUSTING 30KTS.

Cause factors

  • 64/A/18 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND FAILED TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE ROTOR R.P.M. 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 3055. Source file NTSB_1979_3_3055.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.