ANC85LA095 · Cessna 185
Cessna 185 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during landing
From Chena River Seaplane Base (2Z5) to Kantishna Airport (5Z5)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC85LA095
- 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
- N75LE
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Chena River Seaplane Base (2Z5), Fairbanks, AKTo Kantishna Airport (5Z5), Fairbanks, 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Hydraulic system, line › Failure, total
- Landing gear, normal brake system › Failure, partial
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT WAS ON A FLT FROM FAIRBANKS TO KANTISHNA, AK; HOWEVER, THE RWY AT KANTISHNA WAS MUDDY, SO HE ELECTED TO RETURN TO FAIRBANKS. WHILE RETURNING, HE ELECTED TO LAND AT AN ABANDONED MINE STRIP FOR A COMFORT STOP. DURING THE LANDING, A HYDRAULIC LINE TO THE RIGHT BRAKE FAILED & THAT BRAKE BECAME INOP. THE PLT INTENTIONALLY GROUND LOOPED THE ACFT TO AVOID A HEAD-ON COLLISION WITH AN EMBANKMENT. HOWEVER, THE TAIL SECTION HIT THE EMBANKMENT CAUSING SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE TO THE ACFT. THE PLT SAID THE LINE WAS LEAKING BEFORE TAKEOFF & HE HAD TIGHTENED THE FITTING. HE REPORTED THAT THE RIGID LINE'S FLARED END FAILED, PERMITTING A RAPID LOSS OF PRESSURE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC85LA095
- Event ID
- 20001214X36637
- Case number
- ANC85LA095
- 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: b22ee81e3a101816e6c768e4fbf063156848680330539132148855ae5ae9a254; retrieved 2026-09-23T17:18:37.817Z.