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Atlas / NTSB / OAK79FVA21

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event OAK79FVA21

1979-03-14 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-36 · N9946P

Damage

Destroyed

Craft type

Airplane

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

DJ

Operator type

Part 135 (air taxi/commuter)

Kind of flying

CA

Weather at impact

Sky

SCATTERED-BELOW 1000 FEET

Wind

270° / 3 kt

Temp

60° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

0036-7560057

Total time

1,280 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

Commercial

Total hours

2,391

Age

29

Cause factors

  • 64/A/52 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND MISJUDGED ALTITUDE AND CLEARANCE Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 83/J/I J
    TERRAIN HIGH OBSTRUCTIONS 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 0540. Source file NTSB_1979_3_0540.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.