Date:	Friday 20 September 1957
Time:
Type:	Vickers Varsity T.1
Owner/operator:	Royal Air Force - RAF
Registration:	WL640
MSN:
Year of manufacture:	1953
Engine model:	Bristol Hercules 264
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 5 / Occupants: 5
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	Accident
Location:	Falstone, Northumberland -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:
Destination airport:

Narrative:
At 14,000 feet the pilot lost control of the aircraft resulting in a dive, the aircraft then began to break up at around 1,500 feet.
The Varsity was attached to the 2 ANS at RAF Thorney Island and operated on a navigation training exercise.

A Board of Inquiry into the accident was held but was unable to determine the cause of the accident. Only those on board knew what had really occurred but our records indicate that the Board, whilst unable to say for certain what had happened, concluded that the mostly likely reason that the aircraft broke up was that it had been overstressed but there was no evidence to say why this had occurred and the Board could only conjecture.

Andrea Garlick (E-mail, 16-2-2011)
Broken Wings : Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents / James J. Halley
The Vickers Varsity / Roger Lindsay and Geoff Cruickshank, 1987

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