GAA17CA539 · Cessna A185 E
Cessna A185 E · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From Hilltop Airport (AK24) to Talkeetna, AK
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA17CA539
- 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 A185 E
- 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
- N123LR
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hilltop Airport (AK24), CHUGIAK, AKTo Talkeetna, AK
- Aircraft age
- About 48 years (built 1969)
- 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
- Landing
- Defining eventThe 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 on ground
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the tailwheel-equipped airplane reported that, during landing, after a stabilized approach, the airplane touched down on the main landing gear (MLG) first for a wheel landing. The airplane bounced twice, and shortly before the tail settled on the ground, the "crosswind increased causing the aircraft to weathervane to the left." He added that he increased left aileron and right rudder to keep the airplane on the gravel airstrip; however, the "wind gust then all but stopped as the tailwheel settled to the ground causing the aircraft to turn rapidly to the right." He further added that he increased left rudder and brake, but the MLG started to depart the gravel airstrip and enter the softer shoulder. The "tail swung to the left of the aircraft direction of travel," and he was unable to correct the continued tightening right turn. Subsequently, the airplane rolled onto the left wing and left horizontal stabilizer and came to rest on the MLG.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left wing and left horizontal stabilizer.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
The pilot reported the wind at the accident site, about the time of the accident, as variable, gusting to 10 knots. The pilot landed to the northeast.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control while landing in gusting wind conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA17CA539
- Event ID
- 20170918X13400
- Case number
- GAA17CA539
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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 2017-09-17.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 2e92ab34390f25d1b69517ddb4db5d142fdfde620f18435aa654f9d497282769; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:51:23.805Z.