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Atlas / NTSB / OAK77FA049

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event OAK77FA049

1977-08-20 LOS BANOS, California, United States Fatal 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

PIPER PA-28 · N8474F

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dusk

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

D9

Operator type

Personal/private

Kind of flying

B0

Weather at impact

Sky

CLEAR

Wind

340° / 11 kt

Temp

56° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

0028-7790248

Total time

357 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial — instrument

Total hours

144

Age

42

Investigator remarks

LEFT WING AND STABILATORS SEPARATED.

Cause factors

  • 64/A/66 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND SPATIAL DISORIENTATION Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 64/A/09 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND EXCEEDED DESIGNED STRESS LIMITS OF AIRCRAFT Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 88/J/94 J
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS OVERLOAD FAILURE Joint cause
  • 88/J/49 J
    MISCELLANEOUS ACTS,CONDITIONS SEPARATION IN FLIGHT 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 3441. Source file NTSB_1977_3_3441.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.