WPR24LA193 · Cessna A185F
Cessna A185F · Accident
From Sacramento Executive Airport (SAC) to Watts Woodland Airport (O41)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR24LA193
- 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 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
- N8WF
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sacramento Executive Airport (SAC), Sacramento, CATo Watts Woodland Airport (O41), Woodland, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 48 years (built 1976)
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
- Unknown or undetermined
- 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 systems
- Not determined › Not determined
- Personnel issues › Miscellaneous
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 he departed on the 20-nautical-mile flight with 70 gallons of fuel onboard. About 5 miles from the destination airport, the engine lost total power, and the pilot selected a field for a forced landing. During the landing roll, the airplane nosed over and came to rest inverted, which resulted in substantial damage to the rudder and right wing. Data downloaded from the airplane’s engine monitor indicated that the airplane departed with about 66 gallons of fuel and flew for about 29 minutes when the engine lost power. The last recorded data point indicated about 52 gallons of fuel remaining. Recovery personnel stated that when they arrived at the accident site, they observed fuel leaking from the airplane and recovered 30 gallons of fuel from the airplane. Samples did not indicate evidence of fuel contamination. Based on the flight time, the airplane’s estimated fuel consumption, and the amount of fuel recovered from the airplane, it was likely that sufficient fuel was available for the flight. Examination of the airplane and fuel-injected engine revealed no preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. The reason for the loss of engine power could not be determined.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR24LA193
- Event ID
- 20240612194457
- Case number
- WPR24LA193
- 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: investigation status, coordinates, cause areas. 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: 775b7eb44e3e4a5efbf77151748d7bea01816548e62705f06cc2d08a55679888; retrieved 2026-09-16T18:53:14.563Z.