WPR15LA251 · Dova Aircraft DV-1
Dova Aircraft DV-1 · Accident: loss of engine power (partial) during initial climb
From San Carlos Airport (SQL) to Marin County Airport - Gnoss Field (DVO)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR15LA251
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Dova Aircraft DV-1
- Aircraft type
- Dova DV-1
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N919E
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From San Carlos Airport (SQL), San Carlos, CATo Marin County Airport - Gnoss Field (DVO), Novato, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 8 years (built 2007)
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of engine power (partial)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The sport pilot had flown the special light-sport airplane to the airport earlier in the day and refueled. During his first departure attempt, the engine began to operate roughly, and he aborted the takeoff. After another departure attempt with the same results, he aborted the takeoff and taxied the airplane to a mechanic, who suggested that the airplane was experiencing vapor lock in the fuel system and that he let the engine cool down. The pilot waited and then performed an engine run-up, which appeared normal. He reattempted the departure, but the engine experienced a partial loss of power as the airplane began to climb through 50 to 75 ft. The pilot pitched the airplane down into a nose-low configuration and crashed into a field.
Postaccident engine examination did not revealed any evidence of preimpact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. Examination of the fuel system revealed that the airplane was not equipped with a mandatory fuel return line, although specified in the engine manufacturer's installation instructions. Manufacturer guidance indicated that the return line prevents malfunctions caused by the formation of vapor lock.
A combination electronic flight instrument system and engine monitoring system was installed in the airplane, and the data was downloaded from the unit after the examination. The data showed that during the presumed accident takeoff, the fuel level in one tank was between 0 and .05 gallons and the other was at 10.4 gallons and decreasing. During this time, the fuel flow fluctuated between 1 and 7.1 pounds per square inch, which was consistent with the system containing air bubbles and, with the fuel system not being equipped with any way to vent that air, indicative that a vapor lock scenario was imminent. It is likely that the absence of the fuel return line resulted in the engine losing power due to vapor lock.
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power due to fuel vapor lock. Contributing to the accident was the absence of a fuel return line.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR15LA251
- Event ID
- 20150827X11718
- Case number
- WPR15LA251
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2015-08-28.
- API snapshot SHA-256: e7662e9ce100b861ba1fb0133ce69a40d062bd434b60cefc5dec8e65efd5b188; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:43:07.290Z.