Date:	Thursday 23 August 1956
Time:	day
Type:	de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB Mk 5
Owner/operator:	63 Gp CF RAF
Registration:	WA142
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	near Capel Celyn, Bala, Merioneth -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Hawarden, Flintshire (EGNR)
Destination airport:	RAF Llanbedr, Gwynedd, Wales
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB.Mk 5 WA142: Delivered 29/6/50. RAF Service career was 32 Squadron, 249 Squadron, 93 Squadron, RAF Jever, West Germany (as "T-H") from 24/2/53, 5 Squadron from 21/4/54, and 63 Group Communications Flight, RAF (coded "V")

Written off 23.8.1956: Dived into ground near Capel Celyn, Bala, Merioneth, after pilot overcome by anoxia (oxygen starvation). Pilot killed - possibly already dead due to suffocation before impact. Cause of pilot incapacitation attributed to the pilot wearing the "wrong" (and therefore ill-fitting) mask, and being overcome by fumes.

Crew of Vampire WA142:
Group Captain Alan Douglas GROOM, DSO, RAF (pilot, Service Number 37075, aged 42) - killed on active service 23.8.56 while Acting Air Officer Commanding 63 Group RAF. Although he was Australian (his family came from Brisbane) he was buried at Abingdon, Oxfordshire

The reported crash location of Capel Celyn was a rural community to the north west of Bala in Gwynedd, Wales, in the Afon Tryweryn valley. It no longer exists, as the village and other parts of the valley were flooded in 1965 to create a reservoir, Llyn Celyn, in order to supply Liverpool and Wirral with water for industry.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.182 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983 p 8)
3. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.207
4. http://simviation.com//lair/casualty1956.htm
5. http://www.ukserials.com/losses-1956.htm
6. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/_DH100%20prodn%20list.txt
7. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WA
8. http://www.rafjever.org/93squadaircraft.htm
9. http://www.planetrace.co.uk/1950-1959_26.html
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capel_Celyn
11. https://www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/group-captain-alan-groom-dso-raf
12. https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/235426553?q&versionId=261292584
13. https://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/people/military/display/97335-group-captain-alan-douglas-groom
14. http://aircrewremembered.com/groom-alan.html

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
01-Mar-2008 09:05	JINX	Added
08-Jun-2008 14:52	JINX	Updated
22-Mar-2013 13:35	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Phase, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
06-May-2013 18:53	Nepa	Updated [Operator]
05-Nov-2019 18:24	Anon.	Updated [Operator, Operator]
10-Jan-2020 22:03	stehlik49	Updated [Aircraft type, Departure airport, Operator]
24-Jun-2020 21:50	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
25-Jun-2020 13:40	Allach	Updated [Operator, Operator]