ANC03LA064 · Cessna 185
Cessna 185 · Accident: abrupt maneuver while maneuvering
From Ketchikan, AK to BELL ISLAND, AK
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC03LA064
- 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
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- 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 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
- N48061
- Operator
- Gary G. Boles · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ketchikan, AKTo BELL ISLAND, 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Low altitude flight/maneuver, intentional
- Pilot in command › Pull-up, excessive
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private certificated pilot, with the airplane owner as the passenger, was maneuvering a float-equipped airplane near several boats. The occupants of the airplane said that they intended to land near the boats to inquire about fishing. The pilot reported that after flying by several boats, he attempted a landing. Upon touchdown, the airplane was "thrown back up into the air sharply." The passenger reported that the pilot was making a no-flap landing when the floats hit a submerged log. The passenger indicated that the pilot pulled the airplane upward into the air, but it then stalled, about 75 feet above the water. The airplane descended, nose down, collided with the water and then inverted. Occupants of the nearby boats came to the aid of the pilot and passenger. An FAA inspector contacted several witnesses who were occupants of the boats. One witness indicated that the accident airplane was observed to fly over other boats in the area at an altitude of 25 feet. The airplane continued at that height for about 150 yards and then suddenly pulled straight up, exceeding 90 degrees vertical. The airplane then rolled and descended to the water from about 100 feet. The witness indicated that the airplane did not touch down on the water before the sudden pull up. A second witness reported to the FAA that the accident airplane flew directly over several boats at an altitude of about 15 to 30 feet. The airplane continued to fly level for a short distance and then suddenly pitched straight up. Seconds later, the airplane stalled and descended to the water. The witness indicated that the airplane did not strike an object in the water because it never got lower than 15 to 30 feet when it buzzed the boats.
Probable cause
The pilot's abrupt, excessive pull-up during an intentional low level maneuver, and his failure to maintain adequate airspeed which resulted in an inadvertent stall and subsequent collision with the water.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC03LA064
- Event ID
- 20030702X01009
- Case number
- ANC03LA064
- 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, coordinates. 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: 7b8a3103ec68611e98ed57d0319c756f8b43def0b3f13031c834ded581957785; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:26:29.218Z.