SEA93LA059 · Cessna A185F
Cessna A185F · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Kenmore Air Harbor LLC Seaplane Base (S60)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA93LA059
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna A185F
- 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
- N5391R
- Operator
- Johnson, Everett H. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Kenmore Air Harbor LLC Seaplane Base (S60), Kenmore, WA
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel exhaustion
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Flare, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED THAT DURING THE PREFLIGHT OF HIS FLOATPLANE HE VISUALLY CHECKED INSIDE THE FUEL TANKS AND ESTIMATED THAT HE HAD 12 TO 15 GALLONS OF FUEL. HE THEN DEPARTED WITH THE INTENTION OF FLYING TO A NEARBY SEAPLANE BASE APPROXIMATELY 12 NAUTICAL MILES NORTHWEST WHERE HE PLANNED TO PURCHASE FUEL. DURING THE INITIAL CLIMB AND AT AN ALTITUDE OF APPROXIMATELY 300 TO 400 FEET AGL THE ENGINE QUIT AND THE PILOT EXECUTED A FORCED LANDING TO THE LAKE SURFACE. DURING HIS DESCENT HE ENTERED AN AREA OF FOG AND DUE TO REDUCED VISIBILITY HE 'COULD NOT JUDGE WHEN TO FLARE' AND A HARD LANDING FOLLOWED. THE FUEL SYSTEM LINES WERE FOUND TO BE INTEGRAL WITHOUT BREACHES, AND AIRCRAFT RECOVERY PERSONAL REPORTED THAT SHORTLY AFTER THE ACCIDENT, WHILE THE WINGS WERE BEING REMOVED, THEY FOUND NO FUEL IN EITHER FUEL BLADDER. SUBSEQUENT TO THE AIRCRAFT'S RECOVERY TO A NEARBY AIRPORT, TOTAL FUEL AMOUNTS OF 6 OUNCES, 1 OUNCE, AND LESS THAN ONE OUNCE WERE DRAINED RESPECTIVELY FROM THE LOW POINT FUEL FILTER, FUEL LINE LINKING THE BOOST PUMP TO THE ENGINE, AND FROM THE HEADER TANK LOW POINT DRAIN.
Probable cause
FUEL EXHAUSTION, THE PILOT IN COMMAND'S INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT, AND HIS FAILURE TO FLARE ON LANDING. A FACTOR CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS FOG.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA93LA059
- Event ID
- 20001211X11763
- Case number
- SEA93LA059
- 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: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 317d59163b98c468977e8858e77841667020796e88fbba62cb562666f1bc7780; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:21:36.338Z.