BFO92LA122 · Cessna 185
Cessna 185 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff
From Charles A. Chase Jr. Memorial Field (44B) to Greenville Municipal Airport (3B1)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO92LA122
- 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 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
- N93766
- Operator
- Pat Andrews
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Charles A. Chase Jr. Memorial Field (44B)To Greenville Municipal Airport (3B1), Greenville, ME
- 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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 on ground/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
- Fluid, hydraulic › Lack of
- Pilot in command › Aircraft service, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Dover-Foxcroft, ME, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
DURING THE TAKEOFF ROLL, THE AIRPLANE BEGAN TO VEER LEFT OF THE RUNWAY CENTERLINE. THE PILOT APPLIED THE RIGHT BRAKE AND GOT NO RESPONSE. HE TRIED TO REGAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE BY APPLYING THROTTLE TO GET TAIL RUDDER CONTROL, BUT THIS ACTION WAS INEFFECTIVE. THE AIRPLANE CONTINUED TO VEER OFF THE RUNWAY AND DOWN THE AN EMBANKMENT. AS THE AIRPLANE TIPPED DOWN OVER THE EMBANKMENT, THE PILOT'S KNEE PUSHED THE THROTTLE FORWARD, WHICH GAVE THE ENGINE A BURST OF POWER. THE AIRPLANE CONTINUED DOWN THE EMBANKMENT AND NOSED OVER. THE ON SCENE INVESTIGATION DETERMINED THERE WAS NO BRAKE FLUID IN THE RIGHT BRAKE RESERVOIR AND THERE WERE NO SIGNS OF FLUID LEAKAGE THROUGHOUT THE BRAKE SYSTEM. EXAMINATION OF THE RAKE SYSTEM DID NOT REVEAL ANY ANOMALIES. THE PILOT STATED HE ACCOMPLISHED A BRAKE CHECK PRIOR TO TAKEOFF AND DID NOT OBSERVE ANY MALFUNCTION. THE AIRPLANE WAS OPERATED 153 HOURS SINCE THE LAST ANNUAL INSPECTION 11 MONTHS EARLIER.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE SERVICING OF THE AIRCRAFT WHICH RESULTED IN THE LACK OF HYDRAULIC FLUID AND THE CONSEQUENT LOSS OF BRAKE PRESURE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO92LA122
- Event ID
- 20001211X15612
- Case number
- BFO92LA122
- 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: 08ef32386fea22be9f36764bca0126b17b4bc27b9fff61ec147cb9d06a820675; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:41:14.842Z.