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Date: | Tuesday 6 November 1951 |
Time: | night |
Type: | de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB Mk 5 |
Owner/operator: | 229 OCU RAF |
Registration: | WA423 |
MSN: | EEP/42... |
Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
Location: | Saunton Sands, 2 miles west of RAF Chivenor, Barnstaple, Devon -
United Kingdom
|
Phase: | Approach |
Nature: | Military |
Departure airport: | RAF Chivenor, Devon (EGDC) |
Destination airport: | RAF Chivenor, Devon (EGDC) |
Confidence Rating: | Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Narrative:Vampire WA423: delivered 14/6/1951. Written off 6/11/1951, when crashed at Saunton Sands, two miles west of RAF Chivenor, Barnstaple, Devon. The aircraft was on a GCA (Ground Controlled Approach), and, at the point where ATC (Air Traffic Control) switched from "long range" to "local", observers on the airfield saw the aircraft assume a high rate of descent, and dived into sand dunes at Saunton Sands, two miles west of the airfield. The pilot was killed
Crew:
F/Sgt Charles Leslie (pilot) RAFVR - killed
The subsequent RAF Board of Inquiry concluded that the accident was due to a combination of poor IFR (instrument flying) and windscreen icing, which reduced the pilot's visibility.
Sources:
1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.121 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Last Take-off: A Record of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 Colin Cummings p 193
3. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain 1983)
4. 229 OCU ORB (Operation Record Book)(Air Ministry Form AM/F.540) for the period 1/1/1951 to 31/12/1955: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 29/2167 at
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4101877 5.
http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WA 6.
http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/_DH100%20prodn%20list.txt 7.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saunton_Sands Revision history:
Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
29-May-2008 02:59 |
JINX |
Added |
16-May-2015 17:19 |
Xindel |
Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Destination airport] |
09-Jan-2020 12:24 |
stehlik49 |
Updated [Aircraft type, Location, Operator] |
13-Feb-2021 17:53 |
Dr. John Smith |
Updated [Time, Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
13-Feb-2021 20:58 |
Dr.Roup |
Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Destination airport, Narrative, Operator] |
14-Feb-2021 00:17 |
Dr. John Smith |
Updated [Narrative] |
09-Mar-2021 20:20 |
Dr. John Smith |
Updated [Source] |