DEN85LA024 · Cessna 185C
Cessna 185C · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Great Falls, MT
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN85LA024
- 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 185C
- 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
- N5831T
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Great Falls, MT
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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
- Pilot in command › Aborted takeoff, delayed
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH A BRIDGE DURING AN ABORTED TAKEOFF AFTER FAILING TO GET AIRBORNE. THE PLT ABORTED THE TAKEOFF BUTTHE ACFT FAILED TO STOP IN TIME TO AVOID A COLLISION WITH A RAILROAD BRIDGE ABUTMENT MADE OF CONCRETE. THE PLT STATED THAT THE ACFT HAD BEEN SUBJECTED TO SUB-FREEZING TEMPS WITH WATER INSIDE THE PONTOONS. THE SWELLING FROM THE FREEZING WATER (ICE) COMPROMISED THE FLOATS WHICH DEVELOPED LEAKS OF SEVERE NATURE; ENOUGH TO ALLOW THE ACFT TO SINK IN AN EST TWO HOURS. THE REASON THE ACFT DID NOT SINK WHEN LEFT UNATTENTED FOR 2 WKS WAS BECAUSE IT WAS AGROUND. WHEN THE PLT PUMPED THE WATER (NO ICE INSIDE ACCORDING TO HIM) OUT AND LAUNCHED THE ACFT HE MADE NO FURTHER PRE-FLT CHECKS BUT IMMEDIATELY STARTED A TAKEOFF TAXI.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN85LA024
- Event ID
- 20001214X41556
- Case number
- DEN85LA024
- 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: e965b5d2d31483738965b951a2a489f1552e3af299c980d84c657231ca200741; retrieved 2026-09-23T18:51:31.879Z.