Bellair Cessna A185F accident
Cessna A185F · Accident: loss of control in flight en route
From Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport (SIT) to Baranof Warm Springs Float and Seaplane Base (BNF)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA82FA129
- 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
- 4 · 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 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
- N9682Q
- Operator
- Bellair
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport (SIT), Sitka, AKTo Baranof Warm Springs Float and Seaplane Base (BNF), WARM SPRINGS BA, 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 › Flight controls, improper use of
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER DEPARTING SITKA THE ACFT PROCEEDED GENERALLY EAST VIA BLUE LAKE, BLUE LAKE PASS & THE "CUT", A RIDGE ORIENTED NE/SW WITH AN ELEVATION OF APPROXIMATELY 3000 FT MSL. THE IMPACT SITE WAS ABOUT 1 NM SE OF THE CUT ON THE NORTH FACE OF THE VALLEY. BOTH STALL FENCES, LOCATED ON THE UPPER SURFACE OF EACH WING WERE FOUND IMBEDDED IN THE GROUND. THEIR POSITION CORRESPONDED ROUGHLY TO WHERE THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN LOCATED HAD THE ACFT FALLEN TO THE GROUND VERTICALLY & IN A RELATIVELY FLAT ATTITUDE. SEVERAL PLTS OPERATING IN THE VICINITY OF THE ACCIDENT SITE & BLUE LAKE PASS WITHIN SEVERAL HOURS AFTER THE ACCIDENT REPORTED TURBULENCE & STRONG NORTHWESTERLY WINDS. THERE WERE ALSO SEVERAL REPORTS OF CLOUD SPILLOVER TO THE LEE SIDE OF THE CUT INDICITIVE OF DOWNDRAFTS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA82FA129
- Event ID
- 20020917X04159
- Case number
- SEA82FA129
- 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: 229cc4802de038b6935d535ad39b931df26072fa2de0b2dbb6573847b1d6703e; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:32:29.190Z.