ANC93LA039 · Cessna A185F
Cessna A185F · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC93LA039
- 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 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
- N37BC
- Operator
- Williamson, Ken R. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- 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)
- 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
- Unqualified person › Maintenance, installation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING THE INITIAL CLIMB OUT THE ENGINE LOST ALL POWER. THE PILOT EXECUTED A 180 DEGREE TURN AND LANDED ON THE UNPLOWED PORTION OF THE CHENA MARINA STRIP. AFTER THE LANDING AND DURING THE ROLL OUT THE ELEVATOR BALANCE TAB STRUCK A PIECE OF ICE AND IT WAS TORN IN HALF. EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE SHOWED THAT THE FUEL VALVE PLACARD WAS REPLACED INCORRECTLY. WHEN THE FUEL VALVE WAS PLACED IN THE BOTH POSITION, AS REQUIRED FOR TAKEOFF, THE VALVE WAS ACTUALLY IN THE OFF POSITION. THE AIRPLANE HAD JUST RECEIVED A NEW INTERIOR WHICH HAD BEEN INSTALLED BY AN UNCERTIFICATED INDIVIDUAL. THE AIRPLANE WAS NOT INSPECTED NOR WERE THERE ANY ENTRIES IN THE LOGBOOK SHOWING THE NEW UPHOLSTERY WORK.
Probable cause
THE FUEL SYSTEM SELECTOR VALVE BEING PLACED IN THE OFF POSITION DUE TO THE IMPROPER INSTALLATION OF THE FUEL SELECTOR PLACARD BY AN UNQUALIFIED PERSON. THE SNOW COVERED FORCED LANDING AREA WAS A FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC93LA039
- Event ID
- 20001211X11774
- Case number
- ANC93LA039
- 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: a27d6d908893cbdc65d32eacf4acbf3f0335dd762c840830a87f55f30dd655e9; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:18:23.416Z.