Date:	Tuesday 27 July 1954
Time:	day
Type:	de Havilland DH.115 Vampire T Mk 11
Owner/operator:	5 FTS RAF
Registration:	XD514
MSN:	15348
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	North Sea, off Great Yarmouth, Norfolk -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Oakington, Cambridgeshire
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
de Havilland DH.115 Vampire T.Mk 11 XD514: Delivered 29/3/54. RAF Service was with 206 AFS and then 5 FTS.

Written off (destroyed) 27/7/54: Spun into the North Sea off Great Yarmouth, Norfolk during a solo sortie from RAF Oakington, Cambridgeshire. The aircraft took off normally, and made scheduled radio calls. The aircraft was seen to spin apparently out of control, and dived into the North Sea, off Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. The pilot was killed.

As there was very little wreckage recovered, and the body of the pilot was never found, no definitive cause to the accident could be attributed.

Crew of Vampire T.11 XD514
Pilot Officer John Malcolm BIRDSALL, RAF (Service Number 2548126, pilot, aged 19)

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.161 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft XA100-XZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 2001 p.16)
3. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.77
4. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=XD
5. https://www.ab-ix.co.uk/pdfs/dh115.pdf
6. http://www.planetrace.co.uk/1950-1959_26.html
7. http://www.ukserials.com/losses-1954.htm
8. http://www.hampshireairfields.co.uk/xchbook/XCH030817.pdf
9. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/39812/supplement/1795/data.pdf

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
28-Feb-2013 15:18	Dr. John Smith	Added
06-Mar-2013 10:58	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Aircraft type]
25-Dec-2018 20:56	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Nature, Operator]
10-Jan-2020 11:12	stehlik49	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator]
16-Apr-2020 23:12	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Source, Narrative]
16-Apr-2020 23:13	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
17-Apr-2020 10:20	AlLach	Updated [Operator, Operator]