SEA05FA022 · Cessna 185F
Cessna 185F · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From Renton Municipal Airport (KRNT) to Renton Municipal Airport (RNT)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA05FA022
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna 185F
- 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
- N532PC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Renton Municipal Airport (KRNT), Renton, WATo Renton Municipal Airport (RNT)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After liftoff from a touch-and-go landing, the aircraft climbed to about 100 feet above the ground, whereupon the pilot transmitted that he had a problem. Although he did not specify what the problem was, the aircraft was seen entering what initially appeared to be a pilot-initiated left turn. Soon thereafter the aircraft's bank angle and pitch angle increased, and it subsequently descended into a commercial aircraft post-production parking ramp. Just prior to impact, the aircraft's bank angle had increased to more than 80 degrees, and it's nose was approximately 40 degrees below the horizon. Both a photo from a ramp security camera, and a post-accident inspection revealed that the flaps where in the full-down position at impact. Further investigation revealed that the flap latch inner pivot bushing and the rivet that retained it were missing. This resulted in the flap latch becoming detached from its pivot point within the handle, leaving no way for it to be disengaged from the flaps full-down notch in the flap ratchet plate, thus negating the possibility of flap retraction. It was also determined that the holes in the sides of the flap handle, wherein the inner pivot bushing rests, had both worn to an oblong shape. One of the holes, at the point of its greatest diameter, had worn to .337 inch oversize.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control when the flaps became jammed/stuck in their full-down position during a takeoff from a touch-and-go landing. Factors include a worn/disconnected flap latch mechanism, and the flaps being unable to be retracted.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA05FA022
- Event ID
- 20041210X01966
- Case number
- SEA05FA022
- 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: 82815636ba04e4329a5d7cbe78db687c35d40c59ad90a3798a078628b74bb40d; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:11:11.245Z.