ANC93FA081 · Cessna A185E
Cessna A185E · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during initial climb
From LHD to STEPHEN LAKE, AK
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC93FA081
- 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 A185E
- 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
- N70020
- Operator
- Bailey, James K. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From LHDTo STEPHEN LAKE, AK
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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 › Aircraft weight and balance, exceeded
- Pilot in command › Compensation for wind conditions, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLIGHT WAS COMMENCED FOR THE PURPOSE OF TRANSPORTING SUPPLIES TO A LODGE IN PREPARATION FOR THE ARRIVAL OF SEASONAL GUEST. THE OWNER OF THE LODGE ALSO OWNED THE AIRPLANE. THE PILOT IN COMMAND REPORTED THAT HE COMMENCED THE TAKEOFF WITH 1 NOTCH OF FLAP (10 DEGREES) IN GUSTY WIND CONDITIONS. THE CESSNA 185 FLOATPLANE OWNER'S MANUAL SUPPLEMENT RECOMMENDS THE USE OF 20 DEGREES OF FLAP. THE TAKEOFF AND INITIAL CLIMB WERE UNEVENTFUL. THE PILOT BEGAN A DOWNWIND TURN AT 500 FEET AND THE AIRPLANE BEGAN TO SETTLE DESPITE THE APPLICATION OF FULL POWER. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT HE EXPERIENCED NO PROBLEMS WITH THE PLANE'S ENGINE. AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT, THE AIRPLANE WAS 252 POUNDS OVER THE MAXIMUM AUTHORIZED GROSS TAKEOFF WEIGHT LIMITATION.
Probable cause
THE PILOT IN COMMAND EXCEEDING THE MAXIMUM AUTHORIZED GROSS TAKEOFF WEIGHT OF THE AIRPLANE AND HIS FAILURE TO COMPENSATE FOR THE WIND CONDITIONS. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS THE GUSTY WIND CONDITION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC93FA081
- Event ID
- 20001211X12494
- Case number
- ANC93FA081
- 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: 1a8983e334ba08399a91f2ee0af8799620ee9358f2329cecd648130e11a3f381; retrieved 2026-09-21T22:55:57.371Z.