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Atlas / NTSB / SEA74FYE23

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event SEA74FYE23

1973-10-19 ALPENTAL, Washington, United States None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N4382S

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

PIPER PA-32-301

Seats / Engines

7 seats · 1 engine

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A54385

Registrant of record

BCW ALPINE LLC

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

SIKORSKY S-58E · N4382S

Damage

Substantial

Craft type

Balloon

Classification

Accident

Light condition

Dawn

Weather

VMC

Phase of flight

Cruise climb (DB)

Operator type

Public use

Airport

BANDERA STATE

Kind of flying

CK

Weather at impact

Sky

SCATTERED-ABOVE 1000 FEET

Temp

50° F

Aircraft history

Serial number

0000058-1627

Total time

1,122 hrs

Pilot

Certificate

GA (GA)

Total hours

3,230

Age

27

Investigator remarks

PILOT ALLOWED RPM TO DECAY DURING UPSLOPE SURVEY

Cause factors

  • 64/A/08 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND DIVERTED ATTENTION FROM OPERATION OF AIRCRAFT Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 64/A/18 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND FAILED TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE ROTOR R.P.M. Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 64/A/21 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND IMPROPER OPERATION OF POWERPLANT & POWERPLANT CONTROLS Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 64/A/23 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND IMPROPER OPERATION OF FLIGHT CONTROLS Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 64/A/27 A
    PILOT IN COMMAND IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT DECISIONS OR PLANNING Cause — pilot/personnel action
  • 83/J/F J
    TERRAIN ROUGH/UNEVEN 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 3608. Source file NTSB_1973_3_3608.txt. Modern CAROL record on data.ntsb.gov ↗.