FTW84LA042 · Cessna A185F
Cessna A185F · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Gulfport Biloxi International Airport (GPT)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW84LA042
- 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
- 1 · 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 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
- N61394
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Gulfport Biloxi International Airport (GPT), Gulfport, MS
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Altitude, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Climb, not maintained
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT WAS ON THE RETURN LEG OF A FISHING TRIP AT NIGHT. ACCORDING TO THE PLT, THE FLOAT PLANE LIFTED OFF AFTER A FAIRLY LONG RUN ON SMOOTH WATER. HE STATED THAT AT 200 FT AGL & 90 KTS, HE INITIATED A 10 TO 15 DEG RIGHT TURN & ROLLED OUT ON A HEADING OF 350 DEG. AT ABOUT THAT TIME, THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH THE WATER. THE PLT DID NOT HEAR OR FEEL ANYTHING UNUSUAL BEFORE IMPACT & HE DID NOT FEEL THE ACFT DESCEND. AFTER CRASHING, THE ACFT SANK IN APRX 15 FT OF WATER. THE PASSENGER IN THE RIGHT FRONT SEAT WAS NOT FOUND AFTER THE ACCIDENT & WAS PRESUMED TO HAVE DROWNED. THE PLT STATED THAT HE & THE RIGHT FRONT SEAT PASSENGER WERE NOT WEARING THEIR SEAT BELTS. HOWEVER, THE 2 TALKED TO ONE ANOTHER IN THE AIR POCKET WITHIN THE ACFT BEFORE EXITING & THE PASSENGER DID NOT MENTION ANY INJURY AT THAT TIME.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW84LA042
- Event ID
- 20001214X45062
- Case number
- FTW84LA042
- 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 1983-11-05.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 5fcb384ac6b26fbe6f57afd20479609857465bd39adbcbe69e673a01e17bd22f; retrieved 2026-09-21T05:56:40.927Z.