Harvey Canay Seaplane Service Cessna 180J accident
Cessna 180J · Accident: abrupt maneuver during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Grand Isle, LA
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW83FA259
- 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
- 2 · 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 180J
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 180
- 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
- N52072
- Operator
- Harvey Canay Seaplane Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Grand Isle, LA
- 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
- 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
- Abrupt maneuver
- 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
- Stall
- 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
- Airspeed › Not maintained
- Passenger › Pull-up, excessive
- Pilot in command › Remedial action, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
- Pilot in command › Supervision, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Harvey, LA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
A NAVIGABLE WATERWAY, HARVEY CANAL, WAS BEING USED AS A SEAPLANE BASE. IN THAT AREA, A SET OF POWER LINES WERE SUSPENDED OVER THE CANAL BY 2 TALL TOWERS. THE LOWEST LINE OVER THE CANAL WAS 160 FT ABOVE THE CANAL SURFACE, BUT THE LINES DROPPED TO HEIGHTS OF DOWN TO 60 FT OVER LAND. THE NORMAL PROCEDURE FOR A SOUTH TAKEOFF WAS TO FLY UNDER THE LINESAFTER LIFT-OFF OR TO TURN & CROSS OVER THE LINES WHERE THEY ARE LOW TO THE GROUND. WHILE TAKING OFF, THE ACFT WAS OBSERVED TO CLIMB NORMALLY TO APRX 30 FT AGL, THEN BEGAN TO ACCELERATE. APRX 500 FT NORTH OF THE POWER LINES, THE ACFT ENTERED AN ABRUPT CLIMB & REPORTEDLY WENT TO A NEAR VERTICAL ATTITUDE. IT THEN ROTATED ABOUT THE LEFT WING & DESCENDED VERTICALLY INTO THE CANAL, IMPACTING APRX 100 FT NORTH OF THE POWER LINES. AN EXAM REVEALED NO EVIDENCE OF A PREIMPACT MALFUNCTION OR FAILURE. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE PLT HAD BEEN GIVING FLT INSTRUCTION TO THE PASSENGER. IT WAS NOT VERIFIED WHO HAD PULLED THE ACFT UP, BUT THE PLT'S NORMAL PROCEDURE WAS TO FLY UNDER THE WIRES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW83FA259
- Event ID
- 20001214X43320
- Case number
- FTW83FA259
- 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: aaf2b9a82475840a029f702f58158bc520f1756dd60f4e36a655a8f42859f862; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:30:50.577Z.