Date:	Tuesday 22 April 1952
Time:	day
Type:	de Havilland DH.100 Vampire F Mk 1
Owner/operator:	208 AFS RAF
Registration:	TG377
MSN:	EEP/42...
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Babers Farm, Marshwood, Bridport, 7 miles SE of Chard, Somerset -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Initial climb
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Merryfield, Ilton, Somerset
Destination airport:	RAF Merryfield, Ilton, Somerset
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
De Havilland DH.100 Vampire F.1 TG377, 208 AFS, RAF Merryfield, Somerset: Written off when crashed and destroyed when broke up in cloud at Marshwood 7 miles South East of Chard, Somerset, on 22.4.1952

Returning from an aerobatics training exercise, the pilot asked for a homing beacon to initiate a controlled descent. A homing beacon signal was passed to the pilot, but nothing more was heard from him. The aircraft was next seen emerging from cloud at high speed, and the port mainplane broke away from the airframe before the aircraft disintegrated and crashed at Babers Farm, Marshwood, Bridport, 7 miles South East of Chard, Somerset.

The cause of the accident was attributed to the pilot entering a well-developed cu-nim storm cloud, probably due to a toppled gyro following the earlier aerobatics, and losing control due to strong turbulence. The pilot was killed

Pilot of Vampire TG377:
Pilot Officer (2500843) Douglas John TART (pilot) RAF- killed on active service 22.4.52, buried at Bramley Cemetery, Leeds, West Yorkshire

Pilot Officer Douglas John Tart was born on 8 July 1932 at Bramley, West Yorkshire, and was aged nineteen when he died.

Note that most published sources give the crash location as "7 miles south east of Chard, Somerset", but the official files held at the National Archives (see links #6 & #7) give the crash location as "Marshwood, Dorset". Marshwood is a village and civil parish in west Dorset, England, situated on the northern edge of the Marshwood Vale approximately 5.5 miles (8.9 km) northeast of Lyme Regis. Dorset. The two locations are some 6 miles apart.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.127 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Last Take-off: A Record of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p 133
3. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983)
4. Wings Over Somerset: Aircraft Crashes since the End of World War II By Peter Forrester
5. 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
6. National Archives (PRO Kew) File BT233/89: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C424210
7. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AVIA 5/31/S2570: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C6578416
8. http://www.dehavilland.ukf.net/_DH100%20prodn%20list.txt
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshwood

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
02-Mar-2013 20:48	Dr. John Smith	Added
24-Aug-2015 18:18	Django	Updated [Operator, Narrative]
29-Dec-2019 20:30	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Location, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
29-Dec-2019 20:32	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
29-Dec-2019 22:56	stehlik49	Updated [Operator, Operator]
09-Jan-2020 15:08	stehlik49	Updated [Aircraft type, Nature, Destination airport, Operator]
09-Jan-2020 15:10	Anon.	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator]
09-Dec-2020 17:54	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
10-Dec-2020 18:15	AlLach	Updated [Operator, Operator]
04-Mar-2021 19:17	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Source, Narrative]
04-Mar-2021 19:17	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
04-Mar-2021 20:30	AlLach	Updated [Operator, Narrative, Operator]