SEA89LA032 · Cessna 185F
Cessna 185F · Accident: nose over during landing
From Kake Seaplane Base (KAE) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA89LA032
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 185F
- 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
- N6420E
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Kake Seaplane Base (KAE), Kake, AKTo 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Landing
- 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
- Nose over
- 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
- Dispatcher › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, selected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
FAR 135 FLT WAS DIVERTED TO REMOTE STRIP TO PICK UP ADDITIONAL PASSENGERS. THE DISPATCHER WAS NOT AWARE THAT THE RUNWAY WAS COVERED BY 4 FT OF SNOW UNTIL THE ACFT WAS BEYOND RADIO RANGE. THE PLT ASSUMED THAT THE RWY HAD BEEN PLOWED AS IT WAS IN PREVIOUS WINTERS. THE BOX CANYON CONDITION OF THE SURROUNDING TERRAIN PRECLUDED THE PLT FROM OVER FLYING THE RWY TO CHECK ITS CONDITION. ON APPROACH THE RWY APPEARED TO BE A NORMAL SNOW PACKED SURFACE. THE PLT LANDED THE AMPHIB FLOAT ACFT WITH THE LANDING GEAR DOWN AND THE AIRPLANE NOSED OVER DURING THE LANDING.
Probable cause
THE MISJUDGEMENT OF THE RUNWAY CONDITIONS ON THE PART OF THE PILOT PRIOR TO LANDING. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WERE DEEP SNOW ON THE RUNWAY, BOX CANYON CONFIGURATION OF THE AREA PRECLUDING RUNWAY OVERFLIGHT, MARGINAL WEATHER/LIGHT CONDITIONS FOR ASSESSING THE RUNWAY STATUS AND FAILURE ON THE PART OF COMPANY DISPATCH PERSONNEL TO ACQUIRE AND PROVIDE THE PILOT WITH THE RUNWAY CONDITIONS BEFORE DIVERTING THE FLIGHT TO THE LOCATION OF THE MISHAP.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA89LA032
- Event ID
- 20001213X27665
- Case number
- SEA89LA032
- 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: 9514ee39ea5f2fa76e2e8ed5f1f6edfc1c00daed00108dd6a300e89bde200a25; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:15:15.244Z.