NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ERA25LA135
Registry · N459BA
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
ICON AIRCRAFT INC A5
Year of manufacture
2018 · 7 years old at event
Engine
ROTAX 912 IS (100 hp)
Seats / Engines
2 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
20181210
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A593A5
Registrant of record
ICON A5 70 LLC
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot’s failure to retract the landing gear prior to landing in water. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s failure to use the manufacturer’s provided checklist.
Factual narrative
After fueling the airplane at a nearby airport, the pilot was returning to his home lake to perform a water landing. During the landing, the landing gear were still configured in the extended position. The landing gear contacted the water and the airplane nosed down into the water. The airplane subsequently submerged in the water and sank. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and left wing. The pilot reported there were no mechanical failures or anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. Postaccident examination of the wreckage revealed that the landing gear had no abnormalities that prevented normal operation. 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).
- — Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Use of checklist-Pilot
- — Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Use of equip/system-Pilot
- — Aircraft-Aircraft systems-Landing gear system-Gear extension and retract sys-Incorrect use/operation
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2025_ERA25LA135.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. Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- arXiv 2025 · arXiv preprint
Impact of Forecast Stability on Navigational Contrail Avoidance
MMitigating contrail-induced warming by re-routing flights around contrail-forming regions requires accurate and stable forecasts of the state of the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER)
Application of Density Altitude Climatology to General Aviation Impacts
Density altitude (DA) plays a key role in flight safety because it helps pilots anticipate poor aircraft performance when temperatures are warmer than standard.
- arXiv 2022 · arXiv preprint
Extended analysis of the effects of the Sumatra topography on downstream low-level vortex development over the Indian Ocean
Fine et al. (2016, hereafter F16) investigated the potential role of Sumatra Island, as well as the Malay Peninsula and Java, in creating terrain-induced circulations over the Indian Ocean (IO) that s…
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