WPR16LA181 · de Havilland DH115 VAMPIRE 55
de Havilland DH115 VAMPIRE 55 · Accident: part(s) separation from aircraft while maneuvering
From Reno-Stead Airport (RTS) to Reno-Stead Airport (RTS)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR16LA181
- 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
de Havilland DH115 VAMPIRE 55
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DH115
- 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
- N4861K
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Reno-Stead Airport (RTS), Reno, NVTo Reno-Stead Airport (RTS), Reno, NV
- Aircraft age
- About 60 years (built 1956)
- 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
- Maneuvering · low-altitude flying
- 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
- Part(s) separation from aircraft
- 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
- Not determined › Not determined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airline transport pilot reported that, during an air race flight, he heard a "loud bang," followed by wind noise and wind entering the cockpit. The pilot immediately aborted the race by pitching the airplane up and reducing power to idle, at which point he noticed that the right side of the canopy was fractured. The pilot added that he noted throughout the climb and orbit that all engine gauges displayed normal indications as he set up for landing. As the pilot established on the downwind leg for his intended runway, he advanced the power lever and realized the engine had lost power. The pilot realized that the airplane was not going to be able to reach any of the runways, so he chose to land in the open desert north of the airport. He conducted an engine restart procedure without success. Subsequently, the pilot initiated a forced landing with the landing gear and flaps in the retracted position.
A majority of the right canopy window was fractured from the frame. The aft canopy frame had deformation damage as did the airplane structure above and aft of the upper portion of the right seat. Postaccident examination of the canopy and the reconstructed right window (about 79% of the window was identified and reconstructed) revealed no evidence of any preexisting crazing, scratching, or other anomalies that would have contributed to the fracture of the right canopy. Postaccident examination of the engine revealed no evidence of any preexisting malfunctions that would have precluded normal operation. Neither the reason for the fractured canopy nor the engine failure could be determined.
Probable cause
The in-flight failure of the canopy and subsequent loss of engine power for reasons that could not be determined because postaccident examination of the airframe and engine revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR16LA181
- Event ID
- 20160917X32715
- Case number
- WPR16LA181
- 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 2016-09-17.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 0e5d5000333d8c425a2f2655ac621e0ad943eb58777b0d549c9258203c08ddd1; retrieved 2026-09-16T04:16:34.240Z.