Date:	Tuesday 24 May 1955
Time:	day
Type:	de Havilland DH.115 Vampire T Mk 11
Owner/operator:	4 FTS RAF
Registration:	XE832
MSN:	15546
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Stocksfield, Northumberland, 14 miles west of Newcastle upon Tyne -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Middleton St.George, Co.Durham
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
De Havilland DH.115 Vampire T.11 XE832: Delivered 19/11/54. RAF Service career (just over six months) was with 4 FTS only

Crashed and destroyed 24/5/55: Whilst on a training sortie from RAF Middleton St. George, County Durham, the fire warning light came on at 26,000 feet. The instructor descended to 15,000 feet, and inverted the aircraft so the student could bale out. The instructor then bailed out at 11,000 feet, and the aircraft crashed into a small wood at Stocksfield, Northumberland, about 14 miles (23 km) west of Newcastle upon Tyne

Crew:
Flying Officer John Frederick George HOWE (QFI Flying Instructor) - bailed out OK
Pilot Officer P.A. OLLIS, RAF (Pupil Pilot under training, Service Number 4135583) - bailed out OK

Wreckage recovered by (and to) 60 MU RAF Rufforth, North Yorkshire for accident investigation. Remains reportedly scrapped by R.J.Coley at Hounslow. Note that Vampire XE832 crashed at Stocksfield, Northumberland, but one of the files at the National Archives at Kew (File AVIA 5/34/S2758) lists this incident as "Vampire T2 (XE-832). Location: Near Middleton-St-George Airfield. Report No: S2758" [sic]. Middleton St. George was where the Vampire had taken off from, not where it came down!

The QFI Flying Instructor pilot joined the RAF in 1954 (having served with the SAAF (South African Air Force) from 1949 to 1954) and rose through the ranks to become Air Vice Marshal John Frederick George Howe, CB, CBE, AFC (26 March 1930 – 27 January 2016) and a senior Royal Air Force officer in the 1970s and 1980s. He flew combat missions in the Korean War and North Sea interceptor air patrols during the Cold War, finishing his career as the Commandant General RAF Regiment and RAF Provost Marshal and Director General Security. Howe also served as the sixteenth Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps between 1977 and 1980.

The career of Pilot Officer P.A.Ollis (the pupil pilot under training) was not quite so illustrious. He had his commission terminated on 11/10/55, which may have had some connection with the above incident...

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.172 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft XA100-XZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 2001 p )
3. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.135
4. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AVIA 5/34/S2758: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C6578538
5. National Archives (PRO Kew) File BT233/277: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C424398
6. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/_DH115%20prodn%20list.txt
7. http://www.ukserials.com/losses-1955.htm
8. http://www.nelsam.org.uk/NEAR/Losses/Losses-PostWWII.htm
9. https://ab-ix.co.uk/pdfs/dh115.pdf
10. http://www.planetrace.co.uk/1950-1959_26.html
11. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=XE
12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Howe_(RAF_officer)
13. http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?18542-Vampire-t11-crash
14. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/40620/supplement/6142/data.pdf
15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stocksfield ..

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
01-Mar-2013 18:03	Dr. John Smith	Added
06-Mar-2013 11:41	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Aircraft type, Narrative]
02-Apr-2015 21:51	Victor I	Updated [Aircraft type, Departure airport, Narrative]
10-Jan-2020 11:32	stehlik49	Updated [Aircraft type, Nature, Departure airport, Operator]
12-Jan-2020 23:46	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Source, Narrative]
13-Jan-2020 14:10	stehlik49	Updated [Operator, Operator]
20-May-2020 21:23	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Location, Source, Narrative]
21-May-2020 07:48	MIG29	Updated [Operator, Operator]
21-May-2020 17:36	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
21-May-2020 17:38	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]