Date:	Thursday 5 February 1953
Time:	15:45 LT
Type:	Supermarine Attacker F.1
Owner/operator:	767 Sqn FAA RN
Registration:	WA535
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Winwick, 3 miles North of Warrington, Cheshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.)
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RNAS Stretton, HMS Blackcap, Stretton, Cheshire
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
WA535 took off from RNAS Stretton (HMS Blackcap) at 15.30 on the 5th February 1953, piloted by Roy Edwin Collingwood, a commissioned pilot with 767 Squadron, for his third familiarisation flight on the type. He was last heard from at 15.37 when he confirmed he was at 17,000 feet and was climbing in preparation for a high speed run.

Several minutes later witnesses on the ground saw the aircraft approach the Burtonwood area at approximately 3,000 feet and then go into a steep almost vertical climb to approximately 8-9,000 feet. It then rolled over and went into a dive, although still giving the impression that the pilot had control, but it never pulled out and impacted vertically at high speed into the ground at Winwick, three miles North of Warrington, Cheshire

Examination of the wreckage showed that the pilot had jettisoned his canopy some two miles from the point of impact and attempted to eject in the last second before impact - it was thought that he was suffering from anoxia, though no definite cause for the crash was ever decided. Roy Edwin Collingwood was buried in Holy Trinity churchyard, Southchurch, Southend-on-Sea, on 13th February 1953. He was aged 22

1. Fleet Air Arm Fixed Wing Aircraft Since 1946 (Ray Sturtivant. Lee Howard & Mick Burrow, Air Britain, 2004 p.567)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File ADM 1/24547: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4845660
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine_Attacker#Accidents_and_incidents
4. http://web.archive.org/web/20170919005356/http://lamr.co.uk/Crashes/WA535.htm
5. http://www.south-lancs-aviation.bravepages.com/WA535.htm
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNAS_Stretton_(HMS_Blackcap)#Post-war_operations
7. https://www.naval-history.net/xDKCas1953.htm
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winwick,_Cheshire

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
28-Jan-2014 20:53	Dr. John Smith	Added
26-Aug-2020 20:18	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Departure airport, Source]