ANC92FA141 · Cessna 185
Cessna 185 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Girdwood-Alyeska Airport (AQY) to SOFTUK STRIP, AK
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC92FA141
- 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
- 4 · 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 185
- 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
- N9829X
- Operator
- James R. Wirth · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Girdwood-Alyeska Airport (AQY), Girdwood, AKTo SOFTUK STRIP, 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 encounter with weather
- 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 › Flight into known adverse weather, intentional
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
PILOT FILED VFR FLIGHT PLAN FOR FLIGHT TO REMOTE STRIP EASTBOUND VIA WHITTIER/PORTAGE PASS. APPROX 6 MINUTES AFTER TAKEOFF AIRCRAFT IMPACTED AT 700 FT LEVEL OF PASS IN LEVEL FLIGHT. FSS BRIEFINGS DURING PRECEEDING 6 HRS INCLUDED ADVISORIES OF IMC WEATHER IN MOUNTAIN PASSES, W/PORTAGE PASS CLOSED. TRACK OF AIRCRAFT INDICATED AIRCRAFT WAS SKIRTING LEFT SIDE OF PASS. LEFT WINGTIP STRUCK VERTICAL WALL ON HEADING APPROX 60 DEGREES LEFT OF PASS CENTERLINE. WEATHER OBSERVED AS 200 FT OBSCURED AND 1 AND 1/2 MILE VISIBILITY, WITH RAIN AND FOG. WITNESSES 700 FT BELOW SITE HEARD BUT COULD NOT SEE IMPACT.
Probable cause
PILOT IN COMMAND'S INTENTIONAL FLIGHT INTO KNOWN ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS. FACTORS RELATING TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE PILOT'S DISREGARD FOR ADVERSE WEATHER ADVISORY, WEATHER CONDITIONS (CLOUDS) AND MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC92FA141
- Event ID
- 20001211X15273
- Case number
- ANC92FA141
- 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 1992-08-23.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 562a13f8ca6f0a270acb6d713cd0520a09fe7596f9d872afc706a888e4026d53; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:59:14.507Z.