SEA95LA208 · Cessna 185F
Cessna 185F · Accident: loss of engine power while maneuvering
From Salem-Willamette Valley Airport/McNary Field (SLE) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA95LA208
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna 185F
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 185
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N9222H
- Operator
- Wayne e Cartwright · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Salem-Willamette Valley Airport/McNary Field (SLE)To not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Maneuvering
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of engine power
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Stall
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING BANNER PICKUP FOR A BANNER TOWING OPERATION, THE TOW LINE BECAME ENTANGLED WITH THE TAILWHEEL AND DISPLACED THE RUDDER TO THE RIGHT. THE PILOT ELECTED TO MAKE A FLY-BY PAST HIS GROUND CREW TO ASSESS THE PROBLEM BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO RELEASE THE BANNER OR LAND. THE PILOT STATED THAT AFTER THE FLY-BY HE ATTEMPTED TO ADD POWER TO GO AROUND, BUT SUSTAINED A LOSS OF POWER AT THAT TIME. HE DID A SHARP LEFT TURN TO AVOID OBSTACLES AND ATTEMPTED A FORCED LANDING ON THE AIRPORT. WITNESSES NOTED THAT THE ENGINE SOUNDED NORMAL AND THAT THE NOSE DROPPED DURING THE MANEUVER. NO MECHANICAL DISCREPANCIES WERE FOUND.
Probable cause
A LOSS OF POWER FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS AND THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AIRSPEED WHILE MANEUVERING FOR A FORCED LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA95LA208
- Event ID
- 20001207X04599
- Case number
- SEA95LA208
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1995-09-04.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 242ed8648e0eab0c4f6771908bb42faece8246303202014b879da48c6654aa48; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:05:14.005Z.