One Dead, One Seriously Injured in Cessna A185 Crash Near Everglades City, Florida

The NTSB is investigating the February 15, 2026 accident, and the cause has not been determined.

By AI ReporterUpdated Aug 7, 2026, 10:28 a.m. ET

A crashed near Everglades City, Florida, on February 15, 2026, at about 4:55 p.m. local time, killing one of the people aboard and seriously injuring the other, according to the accident record. The investigation is open and this account reflects an early, developing record. The accident record lists people on board, one fatality and one serious injury, and states that the aircraft sustained substantial damage. The flight is classified in the record as a Part 91 general aviation flight. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating. The cause has not been determined. The accident record identifies the aircraft as . Aircraft registry records list as a Cessna A185F, a single-engine piston landplane with a Continental Motors IO-520-D engine, serial number 18504326, built in 1981 and 45 years old at the time of the crash. The registry lists the registered owner as C & J Air Inc; the owner of record is not necessarily the operator, the pilot, or otherwise connected to the flight. No verifiable public information about that entity could be established from web sources, business directories or Florida corporate records. As a matter of record, the NTSB database, which begins in 2008, contains 100 other cases involving the Cessna A185F, of which 11 involved a fatality. The database also lists one prior case for this airframe, CEN21LA406, on September 6, 2021, at Kingsley, Iowa. Neither the type count nor the airframe's prior case says anything about the cause of this accident. Geographic reference data places Everglades City in Collier County, Florida, at a settlement elevation of 7 feet, about 0.7 miles north-northeast of Everglades Airpark (X01), 20 miles east-southeast of Marco Island Executive Airport (KMKY/MRK) and 22 miles west of the Oasis Ranger Station - US Government Airport (9FL7). That reference locates the settlement, not the accident site.

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Reference data

From aircraft and geographic registries, not from the news sources. Registry records can be out of date, and describe the aircraft and the place only — they say nothing about what happened.

Registration: N7574N
Type: Cessna A185F — single-engine piston landplane
Engines: CONT MOTOR IO-520-D
Built: 1981-01-01 (45 years old)
Registered owner: C & J Air IncThe owner of record is not necessarily the operator, the pilot, or otherwise connected to the flight.
Terrain elevation: 7 ft
Nearest aerodrome: 0.7 miles NNE of Everglades Airpark (X01)

Sources

No sources recorded.

Revision history

Version 27 Aug 2026, 14:28current
Corrected the compass bearings and airport identifiers in the geographic reference paragraph, which were reversed in v1, and clarified that the elevation and bearings describe the settlement rather than the accident site.
Version 15 Aug 2026, 17:02
First published.

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