MIA00LA009 · Cessna A185E
Cessna A185E · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Winter Haven Regional Airport - Gilbert Field (GIF) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA00LA009
- 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
- N85PR
- Operator
- Jack A. Sellet · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Winter Haven Regional Airport - Gilbert Field (GIF), Winter Haven, FLTo 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
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel starvation; Tree(s)
- 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
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, annual inspection, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that during cruise flight about 700-800 feet msl, the engine experienced a gradual loss of power. He attempted to correct the loss of power situation but was unable. While descending for a forced landing, the airplane collided with a tree then the ground and nosed over. Post accident examination of the airplane by an FAA airworthiness inspector revealed that the mixture control at the fuel metering valve was found about half way between midrange and idle cutoff. The mixture control cable was found separated from the rod end which was still attached to the Bellcrank (Mixture) at the airbox assembly. Damage to about 11 threads at the end of the mixture cable was noted. Maintenance records were reportedly destroyed in the fire. The IA who performed the last annual inspection stated to the FAA inspector that the aircraft owner adjusted the mixture cable rod-end to attain the correct cushion and he (IA) checked it but failed to check the jam nut at the rod end for security. The owner stated that he did not adjust the engine controls in the engine compartment and thought the IA adjusted the engine controls. The pilot is not a certificated mechanic.
Probable cause
The partial loss of engine power due to the inadequate annual inspection of the airplane by the mechanic with IA for his failure to assure that the mixture control cable jam nut at the rod end was secured following the reported adjustment by the airplane owner who is not a certificated mechanic. This resulted in the separation of the mixture control cable and the uncommanded movement of the mixture control to the midrnage point between midrange and the idle cut-off position.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA00LA009
- Event ID
- 20001212X20012
- Case number
- MIA00LA009
- 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: 042dfb67e6b70a1d994f028acc851bdb987122e5096f1ca948b3fb80ccc96172; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:22:08.844Z.