N4021Y

On March 7, 2000, at 1000 hours Pacific standard time, a Cessna 185, N4021Y, was substantially damaged when the aircraft, equipped with amphibious floats, flipped inverted during landing on water at Lake Tahoe, near Incline Village, Nevada. The airline transport certificated pilot and one passenger received minor injuries. The aircraft, operated by the owner as a personal flight under 14 CFR Part 91, departed from Truckee-Tahoe Airport, Truckee, California, about 0940. No flight plan was filed and visual meteorological conditions prevailed.

A newspaper reporter, who responded to the scene near Ski Beach about 1030, reported that the aircraft had been pulled close to shore when she arrived but all she could see was the bottom of the floats with the wheels extended. A witness told the reporter that he had seen the floatplane approach and land, and, that just as it touched the water, the nose "buckled under."

The pilot reported that it was his intent to remain in the traffic pattern after takeoff at Truckee and make one landing there. While on downwind, however, with the wheels extended for a terrain landing, he noticed the weather deteriorating from the west and decided to proceed directly to the lake for his planned passenger pickup there. During the approach for the water landing, he forgot that the wheels were extended and the aircraft flipped inverted when he touched down on the water.