Kenneth C. Sumey, Columbia Air Cessna 185 accident
Cessna 185 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From ROBE · ROBE LAKE, AK to SILVER LAKE, AK
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC83FA180
- 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 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
- N4559F
- Operator
- Kenneth C. Sumey, Columbia Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From ROBE · ROBE LAKE, AKTo SILVER LAKE, 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 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
- Approach · VFR pattern base
- 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 terrain/water
- 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 › Altitude, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Flare, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT HAD TRIED TO FLY TO SILVER LAKE, EARLIER THAT MORNING, BUT HAD TO ABORT THE MISSION DUE TO LOW CEILING & VISIBILITY. WHEN HE HAD RETURNED AT 1110 ADT, THE CEILING HAD IMPROVED, BUT THERE WAS STILL LAYERS OF STRATUS & FOG BELOW THE MAIN CLOUD BASE. WITNESSES OBSERVED THE ACFT CIRCLE TWICE & BELIEVED THE PLT INTENDED TO LAND. DURING A DESCENDING LEFT TURN WITH 15 TO 20 DEG OF BANK, THE ACFT STRUCK THE WATER WITH THE LEFT FLOAT, THEN BOUNCED HIGH ABOVE THE WATER. AT THE TOP OF THE BOUNCE, HIGH ENG WAS HEARD, THEN THE ACFT PITCHED DOWN ABRUPTLY & CRASHED IN THE WATER. WHEN THE WATER & SPRAY SUBSIDED, WITNESSES SAW 2 FLOATS, THE REAR SECTION OF THE FUSELAGE & DEBRIS ON THE WATER. ABOUT 2 MIN LATER, THEY SAW THE 2 OCCUPANTS CLIMB ONTO THE FLOATING WRECKAGE. THE WITNESSES BEGAN BUILDING A LOG RAFT TO RESCUE THE OCCUPANTS, BUT BEFORE COMPLETING THE RAFT, THE OCCUPANTS HAD DRIFTED OUT OF SIGHT IN FOG & RAIN. A SEARCH WAS MADE FOR THE OCCUPANTS, BUT THEY COULD NOT BE FOUND & WERE PRESUMED TO HAVE DROWNED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC83FA180
- Event ID
- 20001214X44384
- Case number
- ANC83FA180
- 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: 02af5945bbee43b6cbb8f9a1ee46312fdc593416ec83368648a94cc363e35329; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:30:08.307Z.