SEA04FA169 · Cessna A185F
Cessna A185F · Accident: in flight encounter with weather while maneuvering
From McMinnville Municipal Airport (MMV) to Seattle Paine Field International Airport (PAE)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA04FA169
- 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
- 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
- Instrument 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
- N7562Q
- Operator
- Robert Londo
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From McMinnville Municipal Airport (MMV), McMinnville, ORTo Seattle Paine Field International Airport (PAE), Everett, WA
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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 into known adverse weather, continued
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that weather information was attained before and during the flight. The cruising altitude was approximately 2,500 feet mean sea level. The pilot stated that while en route the ceiling and forward visibility deteriorated enough to warrant turning around and diverting to an alternate airport. While attempting to reach the airport, the weather conditions continued to deteriorate and the pilot made a decision to perform an emergency landing to avoid flight into possible instrument meteorological conditions and avoid contact with the surrounding rising terrain. The pilot chose to make a landing next to a clear cut area and land in immature trees adjacent to the clear cut area. The pilot stated that during the collision sequence, the wings were separated. The fuselage came to rest upright with few injuries to the occupants. It was during the subsequent post-crash fire which caused the severest injuries to the occupants. The pilot reported no mechanical failure or malfunction with the aircraft at the time of the accident. Prior to departure and during the in flight weather briefings, the weather specialist reported to the pilot adverse weather conditions along the route of flight and informed the pilot that visual flight rules flight was not recommended.
Probable cause
The pilot's continued flight into known adverse weather conditions. Inadequate preflight planning/preparation, trees, a low ceiling and no suitable terrain available for the landing were factors.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA04FA169
- Event ID
- 20040826X01293
- Case number
- SEA04FA169
- 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: 348cc75a2c9d1fa893f325eb24d2c584607822d9065e1935e5d5d1c80af42e9a; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:22:09.174Z.