ANC83FAG03 · Cessna A185F
Cessna A185F · Accident: in flight encounter with weather on approach
From Aniak Airport (ANI) to Nyac Airport (ZNC)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC83FAG03
- 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
- 3 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna A185F
- 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
- N61764
- Operator
- John T. Bloomquist · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Aniak Airport (ANI), Aniak, AKTo Nyac Airport (ZNC), NYAC, 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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 encounter with weather
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC); 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, performed
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT CRASHED AFTER COLLIDING WITH A TREE NEAR THE DESTINATION AIRPORT AT NYAC, AK. THE PILOT HAD TRIED THIS FLIGHT FROM ANIAK TO NYAC THE DAY BEFORE AND HAD RETURNED TO ANIAK BECAUSE OF WEATHER. THE WEATHER AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT WAS SNOWING AND BLOWING WITH WINDS OF 40 GUSTING TO 60 MPH OR HIGHER ACCORDING TO A RESIDENT OF NYAC. ANOTHER WITNESS SAID THE VISIBILITY WAS BELOW ONE HALF MILE. THE AIRCRAFT IMPACTED THE GROUND IN A 25 DECREE NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE AFTER THE LEFT WING CONTACTED A SPRUCE TREE 8 INCHES IN DIAMETER. AFTER GROUND IMPACT, THE AIRCRAFT BOUNCED BACK INTO THE AIR AND TRAVELED ABOUT 250 FEET BEFORE STOPPING. AIRCRAFT PARTS WERE SCATTERED FROM THE INITIAL GROUND CONTACT POINT TO THE FINAL STOPPING POINT. THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF PRE-IMPACT FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION. A FIRE ERUPTED AS A RESULT OF THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC83FAG03
- Event ID
- 20001214X41909
- Case number
- ANC83FAG03
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1983-01-21.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 734d64960ec5ae5c74af2f200fe3c6dade3662d5c5a191aba5bd0863072cc843; retrieved 2026-09-21T07:16:08.613Z.