Date:	Monday 14 July 1952
Time:	day
Type:	de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB Mk 5
Owner/operator:	208 AFS RAF
Registration:	VF265
MSN:	EEP/42...
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Other fatalities:	1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Llandaff Hotel, Cardiff, South Glamorgan, Wales -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Merryfield, Ilton, Ilchester, Somerset (EGDI)
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB.Mk 5, VF265, 208 AFS (Advanced Flying School), RAF: Written off when collided with Vampire TG297 at 30,000 feet over Cardiff on 14th July 1952. The aircraft was the No.2 in a three-aircraft formation, and the pilot realsied that he was closing in on the lead aircraft. He attempted to avoid this by easing back on the throttle, and dropping back. However, in doing so, he slowed to the point that he collided with the No.3 aircraft (Vampire TG297). The aircraft became unstable and uncontrollable as a result of the collision, but the pilot - Pilot Officer G.H. Patterson - parachuted to safety and landed at Cardiff airport (Pengam Moors).

Large pieces of the aircraft crashed into a Cardiff hotel, killing a civilian on the ground, Mrs Georgina Ethel Evans, aged 53, a chambermaid. She was working in a third-storey bedroom of the hotel when the debris from the collision crashed into the building before finally ending up in the basement of the hotel. According to a contemporary newspaper report (The Sydney Morning Herald Tuesday 15 Jul 1952 Page 3):

"Plane Crash Kills
Hotel Cleaner
LONDON, July 14 (A.A.P.). -
An elderly woman was killed to-day when two British Vampire jet fighters collided over Cardiff, Wales, and one of them crashed into a small hotel. Both pilots bailed out safely. The body of the woman, who was cleaning one of the hotel rooms, was found in the debris".

VF265 was Struck Off Charge 1st August 1952 as Cat. 5(Scrap). TG297, the other aircraft involved in the collision, came down at Pont-cana Farm, Llandaff, Glamorgan. The pilot of Vampire TG297 - Pilot Officer B.F. Shaw - successfully parachuted to safety and landed in the Bristol Channel, whereupon he was rescued by a Swedish vessel and taken to Barry, Glamorgan.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.130 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Last Take-off: A Record of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p 267
3. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100 to VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1985, p 38)
4. The Sydney Morning Herald Tuesday 15 Jul 1952 Page 3: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18273207
5. The Times (London) 15th July 1952
6. Wings Over Somerset: Aircraft Crashes since the End of World War II By Peter Forrester
7. 208 AFS ORB (Operations Record Book)(Air Ministry Form AM/F.540) for the period 1/11/1951 to 31/5/1954: National Archives (PRO Kew) flie AIR 29/2147 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4101857
8. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VF
9. http://www.dehavilland.ukf.net/_DH100%20prodn%20list.txt
10. Photo #1 of wreckage: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-an-raf-vampire-jet-crashes-on-the-llandaff-hotel-in-cardiff-wales-20345707.html
11. Photo #2 of wreckage: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-an-raf-vampire-jet-crashes-on-the-llandaff-hotel-in-cardiff-wales-20345711.html
12. http://www.ggat.org.uk/timeline/pdf/Military%20Aircraft%20Crash%20Sites%20in%20Southeast%20Wales.pdf
13. https://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/515419/details/de-havilland-vampire-f1-tg297 .

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
02-Mar-2013 12:25	Dr. John Smith	Added
02-Mar-2013 12:36	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Departure airport, Source]
04-Dec-2018 20:12	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Nature, Operator]
18-Mar-2019 13:26	ed	Updated [Total fatalities, Other fatalities]
24-May-2019 21:57	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Source, Narrative]
09-Jan-2020 15:23	stehlik49	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator]
15-Mar-2021 21:08	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Total fatalities, Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
15-Mar-2021 21:11	Udet	Updated [Operator, Operator]
17-Mar-2021 13:10	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
17-Mar-2021 20:24	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
17-Mar-2021 20:26	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]