SEA93FA205 · Cessna 185A
Cessna 185A · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From Norman Grier Field (S36) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA93FA205
- 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
- 2 · 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 185A
- 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
- N4176Y
- Operator
- Mcadams, John A. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Norman Grier Field (S36), Kent, WATo 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 control in flight
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A WITNESS REPORTED THAT THE AIRPLANE MADE A LOW PASS OVER THE UNLIGHTED AIRSTRIP IN DARK NIGHT CONDITIONS. THE WITNESS THOUGHT THAT IT WAS LANDING AT THAT TIME, HOWEVER, THE AIRSPEED WAS TOO FAST. AT THE END OF THE AIRSTRIP, THE AIRPLANE SUDDENLY PULLED UP AND MADE A SHARP LEFT TURN. THE AIRPLANE DESCENDED BEHIND A SMALL HILL AND SHORTLY THEREAFTER, FLAMES WERE VISIBLE. DURING THE POST CRASH INVESTIGATION, IT WAS NOTED THAT THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH THE TERRAIN IN A NOSE DOWN AND LEFT WING LOW ATTITUDE. NO EVIDENCE WAS FOUND TO INDICATE A MECHANICAL FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S POOR IN-FLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AIRSPEED ABOVE A STALL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA93FA205
- Event ID
- 20001211X13470
- Case number
- SEA93FA205
- 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 1993-09-22.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f303626e57ea67cf2d6ecb14afcbd0e7b75805ff4bcf62aa31fb9532b81ffd63; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:22:54.226Z.