Date:	Saturday 6 August 1955
Time:	12:15
Type:	Hawker Hunter F1
Owner/operator:	Hawker Aircraft Ltd
Registration:	WT562
MSN:	41H-665412
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	RAF Thorney Island, Emsworth, Hampshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Test
Departure airport:	RNAS Ford, (HMS Peregrine) Yapton, West Sussex
Destination airport:	Boscombe Down, Wiltshire (EGDM)
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Hawker Hunter F.Mk.1 WT562: First flown 29-10-53, Delivered 24-11-53. C(A) aircraft, Hawker Aircraft Ltd., Dunsfold. Trial Installation of 1/3 Span flaps. Suffered forced landing at RNAS Ford following engine failure (turbine blade failure) while carrying out gun firing trials off Littlehampton, pilot; Squadron Leader Neville Duke, 01-08-55 (he was subsequently awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Services in the Air). Engine changed.

Crashed at RAF Thorney Island, Emsworth, Hampshire at 12:15 local time on 6-8-55 after engine failure at 1,000 feet over Chichester while returning aircraft from Ford to Boscombe Down. Aircraft bounced on landing on runway 06 at 200 mph and Neville Duke selected undercarriage retracted to slow the aircraft down; however, one main wheel stayed down and the aircraft bounced again, finally coming to rest against the land side of the sea wall and breaking its back just aft of the cockpit, after sliding through a perimeter fence. Runway lights along part of 06/24 were ripped off their mountings as the aircraft slewed off the runway.

Pilot; Hawker Chief Test Pilot, Neville Duke received spinal injuries which would continue to plague him later in life. Written off, 6-8-55 as Cat.5(scrap). To Ministry Of Supply charge, 16-9-55 and scrapped at Dunsfold.

1. Eyewitness report (inspected crash site approx. 1 hour after incident)
2. Hawker Hunter 1951 to 2007 p.39 by David J. Griffin
3. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.173 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
4. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983 p 95)
5. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.149
6. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WT
7. http://www.hampshireairfields.co.uk/hancrash.html
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Duke#Test_pilot

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
10-Jan-2009 11:55	ASN archive	Added
29-Dec-2010 08:32	RAFOHunter	Updated [Cn, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
03-Dec-2011 22:44	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Cn, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
09-Dec-2013 07:19	profoblivion	Updated [Time, Source, Narrative]
25-May-2020 19:36	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Cn, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]