Cessna 185 accidents

The NTSB database holds 1,004 accidents and incidents involving the Cessna 185, recorded between 1964 to 2025. 83 of them were fatal (8%), and 176 people died.

The deadliest year was 1977, with 12 deaths.

The phase of flight recorded most often is landing (252 records).

Most of these records are from United States, Canada and Africa.

617 of these records have no coordinates in the source data, so they appear in the list below but not on the map.

1,004

Records

Fatal

176

Deaths

Share fatal

1964 to 2025

Period

Show these on the map 387 of 1,004 have coordinates

By decade

1960s 138

1970s 327

1980s 223

1990s 173

2000s 103

2010s 24

2020s 16

Where these happened

United States 979 Canada 5 Africa 3 Unknown/Not Reported 2 Colombia 2 Peru 1

Operators involved

Wien Alaska Airlines, Inc. 5 Frontier Flyin 4 Homer Air Serv 4 Intracoastal S 3 Green River AV 3 Foster Aviatio 3

All 1,004 records by number of deaths, then by date

Date	Aircraft	Location	Operator	Outcome	Died
27 Jul 2001	Cessna 185 N3800Q	Yakutat, Alaska, United States	Gulf Air Taxi Inc	Fatal	1
15 Nov 2000	Cessna 185F N6232E	Jena, Louisiana, United States	-	Fatal	1
28 Sep 2000	Cessna 185 2463P	Vargas, Venezuela no coordinates	Elias B. Laser	Fatal	1
18 Jun 1998	Cessna 185 N9982X	Big Lake, Alaska, United States	-	Fatal	1
5 Jul 1994	Cessna 185C N5833T	Palouse, Washington, United States	Teal, Dennis A.	Fatal	1
30 Aug 1993	Cessna 185 N70087	Hulahula River, Alaska, United States	Dowding, Roger D.	Fatal	1
14 Dec 1991	Cessna 185 N2212T	Ketchikan, Alaska, United States	Gerald O'brien Salazar	Fatal	1
7 Sep 1989	Cessna 185 N4838C	Tanacross, Alaska, United States	Warbelow, Charles	Fatal	1
19 Jul 1987	Cessna 185 N1744R	Hinchinbrook Is, Alaska, United States no coordinates	-	Fatal	1
15 Oct 1986	Cessna 185 N61438	Greenville, Maine, United States no coordinates	-	Fatal	1
11 Jan 1984	Cessna 185 N93086	Union City, California, United States	-	Fatal	1
19 Jun 1982	Cessna 185F N4212Q	Near Chinitna B, Alaska, United States no coordinates	Alaska North Flying Service	Fatal	1
24 Sep 1981	Cessna 185 N1343Q	Collbran, Colorado, United States no coordinates	-	Fatal	1
30 Apr 1981	Cessna 185F N1846R	Geraldine, Montana, United States no coordinates	-	Fatal	1
6 Oct 1980	Cessna 185F N21749	Le Duc Lake, Alaska, United States no coordinates	Revilla Flying	Fatal	1
4 May 1980	Cessna 185F N93130	Anchorage, Alaska, United States no coordinates	-	Fatal	1
15 Oct 1978	Cessna 185 N70269	Ketchikan, Alaska, United States no coordinates	Todd Air Servi	Fatal	1
11 Sep 1978	Cessna 185F N80172	Riggins, Idaho, United States no coordinates	Arnold Aviatio	Fatal	1
25 Feb 1978	Cessna 185 C-GFYS	Naches, Washington, United States no coordinates	-	Fatal	1
26 Nov 1975	Cessna 185 N445J	St Petersburg, Florida, United States no coordinates	-	Fatal	1
23 Jun 1973	Cessna 185 N70096	Aniak, Alaska, United States no coordinates	Aniak Flying S	Fatal	1
3 Jun 1973	Cessna 185B N2560Z	Sun City Ctr, Florida, United States no coordinates	-	Fatal	1
30 Apr 1973	Cessna 185E N2748J	Homer, Alaska, United States no coordinates	Homer Air Serv	Fatal	1
13 Apr 1972	Cessna 185 N5854T	Tariffville, Connecticut, United States no coordinates	Red Bird Aero	Fatal	1
30 Jun 1971	Cessna 185E N2783J	Northway, Alaska, United States no coordinates	Floyd Miller E	Fatal	1
25 Jan 1969	Cessna 185 N2568Z	Jefferson, Ohio, United States no coordinates	-	Fatal	1
9 Jan 1969	Cessna 185 N1656Z	Missing Aircraft, Unknown/Not Reported no coordinates	ED Todd	Fatal	1
12 Nov 1968	Cessna 185 N2256T	Anaktuvuk Ps, Alaska, United States no coordinates	Barton Air SER	Fatal	1
21 Apr 1968	Cessna 185 N6348A	Gallup, New Mexico, United States no coordinates	-	Fatal	1
22 Jun 1967	Cessna 185 N4002Y	Etlan, Virginia, United States no coordinates	S and K Aero	Fatal	1
8 Apr 1966	Cessna 185A N4184Y	Lafollette Tenn, Tennessee, United States no coordinates	-	Fatal	1
9 Dec 1964	Cessna 185 N4064Y	Norton Sound Alas, Alaska, United States no coordinates	Unalakleet Air	Fatal	1
16 Oct 1964	Cessna 185A N1687Z	Fish Lake Idaho, Idaho, United States no coordinates	-	Fatal	1
10 Oct 2025	Cessna 185C N5806T	Phoenix, Arizona, United States	-	No injuries	-
9 Oct 2025	Cessna 185 LV-ASL	Rafaela, Argentina no coordinates	-	No injuries	-
27 Sep 2025	Cessna 185A N186X	Ilwaco, Washington, United States	-	No injuries	-
7 Apr 2025	Cessna 185 N1526F	Wausau, Wisconsin, United States	-	No injuries	-
24 Jun 2024	Cessna 185 N748WP	Anchorage, Alaska, United States	-	No injuries	-
12 Sep 2023	Cessna 185 N34VV	Healy, Alaska, United States	Fly Denali INC	No injuries	-
4 Aug 2023	Cessna 185 N9855X	Iliamna, Alaska, United States	-	No injuries	-
12 May 2022	Cessna 185 N23FG	Franklin, California, United States	-	No injuries	-
6 Jul 2021	Cessna 185 N185YT	Kenney Lake, Alaska, United States	-	No injuries	-
20 Oct 2020	Cessna 185 N850WB	Anchorage, Alaska, United States	-	No injuries	-
7 Oct 2020	Cessna 185A G-BLOS	Romsey, United Kingdom no coordinates	-	Serious injuries	-
17 May 2020	Cessna 185 N185	Winifred, Montana, United States	-	No injuries	-
6 May 2020	Cessna 185 N185SZ	Palmer, Alaska, United States	-	No injuries	-
17 Jan 2020	Cessna 185 N1557F	Laytonsville, Maryland, United States	-	No injuries	-
8 Jun 2019	Cessna 185 N4057Y	Gulkana, Alaska, United States	-	No injuries	-
25 Feb 2019	Cessna 185 N10044	Ridgeland, South Carolina, United States	Usda Forest Service Fepp	No injuries	-
12 Aug 2018	Cessna 185 N62882	Brooks Range, Alaska, United States	-	No injuries	-