3 May 2008: Cessna A185F

3 May 2008: Cessna A185F — Unknown operator

No fatalities • Mexican Hat, UT, United States

Probable cause

The pilot's failure to maintain directional control.

— NTSB Determination

Accident narrative

The pilot reported that he took off from a dirt road, and the right main gear encountered a rut. The pilot wasn't sure if this damaged the gear leg or tire assembly. He continued his flight to a dirt strip. He flew over the field twice to assess the winds and the condition of the field. There was no wind indicator at the field and he elected to land uphill on a westerly heading. He experienced significant downdrafts on short final, and added power to compensate. He bounced the landing, which he reported was recoverable with power. The airplane then bounced once or twice slightly, and veered sharply to the left of the runway. It departed the runway, impacted trees and bushes, and nosed over, causing substantial damage to the wings, horizontal stabilizer, and vertical stabilizer. The pilot reported that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures of the airplane.

Contributing factors

  • cause Directional control — Not attained/maintained
  • cause Pilot
  • Tree(s)
  • cause Pilot

Conditions

Weather
VMC, wind 000/05kt, vis 10sm

Loading the flight search…

What you can do on Flight Finder

  • Search flights between any two airports with live fares.
  • By aircraft — pick a plane model (e.g. Boeing 787, Airbus A350) and see every route it flies from your origin.
  • Route map — click any airport worldwide to explore its destinations, or draw a radius to find nearby airports.
  • Global aviation safety — aviation accident database, 40,000+ records since 1980, with map and rankings by aircraft and operator.
  • NTSB safety feed — recent U.S. aviation accidents and incidents from the official NTSB CAROL database, updated daily.

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.