MIA84FA091 · Cessna 185F
Cessna 185F · Accident: airframe, component or system failure
From SB · KEYWEST, FL to SB · DRY TORTUGA, FL
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA84FA091
- 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
- N4460R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From SB · KEYWEST, FLTo SB · DRY TORTUGA, FL
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Landing gear, float assembly › Leak
- Landing gear, float assembly › Water
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT LANDED AFTER A PREVIOUS FLT & WAS REFUELED & PREFLIGHT FOR ANOTHER MISSION. ACCORDING TO MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL, THE ACFT FLOATS WERE DRAINED ONCE EVERY MORNING BEFORE THE 1ST FLT OF THE DAY IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE MANUFACTURER'S RECOMMENDATIONS. THE PLT STATED THAT WHEN SHE WAS TAKING OFF FROM THE SEAPLANE BASE, THE FRONT RIGHT DOOR WINDOW BECAME OPEN & SHE LEANED TO THE RIGHT TO CHECK THAT THE DOOR WAS CLOSED & LOCKED. SHE CONTINUED THE TAKEOFF. WHEN THE ACFT BECAME AIRBORNE, SHE HAD TO HOLD AN ABNORMAL AMOUNT OF RIGHT AILERON TO HOLD THE WINGS LEVEL. AT THAT TIME, SHE NOTED THAT THE ACFT WAS NOT ACCELERATING & CLIMBING PROPERLY. THERE WERE HIGH TENSION WIRE AHEAD, SO SHE ELECTED TO ABORT. THE ACFT WAS BANKED TO THE LEFT & WAS LANDED HARD WHILE IN A LEFT WING LOW, FORWARD SLIP. THE FLOATS SEPARATED, & SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT CAME TO REST IN ABOUT 4 FT OF SALT WATER. NO EVIDENCE OF A PREIMPACT FAILURE WAS FOUND EXCEPT THE LEFT FLOAT HAD 3 POPPED RIVETS & A QUANTITY OF WATER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA84FA091
- Event ID
- 20001214X38846
- Case number
- MIA84FA091
- 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: 20ff4ee872920d597d15302b7ccbf5f5bd132e3ce041e4988f4a45d3623241b9; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:44:00.843Z.