NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ANC20LA065
Registry · N9185T
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
CESSNA 180C
Year of manufacture
1960 · 60 years old at event
Engine
CONT MOTOR O-470 SERIES (230 hp)
Seats / Engines
4 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
19600106
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S ACB77C
Registrant of record
JONES JUSTIN
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The failure of the left float bottom due to corrosion, which resulted in a loss of control during the water landing.
Factual narrative
On July 5, 2020, about 1115 Alaska daylight time, a Cessna 180C airplane, N9185T, sustained substantial damage when it was involved in an accident near Anchorage, Alaska. The private pilot and one passenger were not injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. According to the pilot, they were returning from a remote lake to Lake Hood Airport (PALH) in the float-equipped airplane. The pilot stated that the departure was normal, with about 10 to 12 mph of wind on the lake, creating a light chop on the water's surface. Upon touchdown at PALH, the left float dug into the water and the airplane veered abruptly and nosed over. He stated that they quickly exited the sinking wreckage. A video captured the accident sequence and revealed that the airplane touched down on about the step of the floats before abruptly veering to the left. The right wing contacted the water and the airplane veered back to the right, and then to the left, before the airplane nosed over. A postaccident examination of the left float revealed a large hole in the bottom of the float just forward of the step. (See Figure 1.) Corrosion was present around the hole and no impact signatures were present on the bottom of the float. Figure 1 - Accident airplane at accident site, hole visible in left float. Photo courtesy of KTVA. According to the pilot, and corroborated by video capturing the accident, during a normal touchdown in a float-equipped airplane, the left float dug into the water and the airplane veered abruptly and nosed over. A postaccident examination revealed a large hole in the bottom of the left float just forward of the step. Corrosion was present around the hole and no impact signatures were present on the bottom of the float. The circumstances of the accident are consistent with a loss of control during the water landing due to the failure of the left float due to corrosion. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).
- C Aircraft-Aircraft systems-Landing gear system-Wheel/ski/float-Fatigue/wear/corrosion - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2020_ANC20LA065.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (loss of control). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2025 · Journal article (JAAER)
A Scoping Review of Aviation Loss of Control Inflight Research
Loss of control – inflight (LOC-I) contributes to aircraft accidents at unacceptably high rates. Significant industry efforts and research have aimed to improve LOC-I prevention, detection, and recove…
- SKYbrary (Eurocontrol) 2024 · SKYbrary article
Loss of Control In-Flight (LOC-I) — SKYbrary Knowledge Base
SKYbrary comprehensive knowledge-base entry on Loss of Control In-Flight — definitions, contributing factors, accident case studies (Air France 447, Colgan 3407), and prevention strategies.
- NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports 2022 · Accident report
Loss of Control on Takeoff in Icing Conditions — Citation 560XL
Cessna Citation 560XL fatal takeoff icing accident, March 2018. Investigation of a Citation 560XL loss-of-control takeoff accident in icing conditions.
- Semantic Scholar 2021 · Article (Aviation)
ANALYSIS OF GENERAL AVIATION FIXED-WING AIRCRAFT ACCIDENTS INVOLVING INFLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL USING A STATE-BASED APPROACH
Inflight loss of control (LOC-I) is a significant cause of General Aviation (GA) fixed-wing aircraft accidents. The United States National Transportation Safety Board’s database provides a rich source…
- NASA NTRS 2021 · Presentation
Use of Design of Experiments in Determining Neural Network Architectures for Loss of Control Detection
Abstract—We describe empirical methods for selecting a neural network architecture to implement belief state inference on generic commercial transport aircraft.
- NASA NTRS 2021 · Conference Paper
Use of Design of Experiments in Determining Neural Network Architectures for Loss of Control Detection
We describe empirical methods for selecting a neural network architecture to implement belief state inference on generic commercial transport aircraft.
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗