Date:	Thursday 15 July 1954
Time:	day
Type:	de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB Mk 5
Owner/operator:	233 OCU RAF
Registration:	VZ234
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	6 miles west of Llandow, Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Pembrey, Carmarthenshire
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB.Mk 5 VZ234: Delivered 6/2/50. This Vampire's service life included assignments to 32 Squadron at El Aouina, Tunisia,(coded "R") in 1951 and 233 OCU.

Written off (damaged beyond repair) 15/7/54: The engine cut out and the aircraft was abandoned 6 miles west of Llandow, Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. Pilot - Flying Officer W.C. King - bailed out successfully, and was found floating in his dinghy in the Bristol Channel, where he was rescued by a SAR (Search And Rescue) helicopter from RAF Chivenor, Devon.

The now-unpiloted aircraft flew on without him, and eventually crashed in the Bristol Channel off the coast of South Wales

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.160 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1985 p.91)
3. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.72
4. Wings Over Somerset: Aircraft Crashes since the End of World War II By Peter Forrester
5. VZ234, 32 Sqn RAF, Egypt, 1951: http://www.aviationbanter.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=70510&d=1412426887
6. The History of the De Havilland Vampire By David Watkins
7. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VZ
8. http://www.ggat.org.uk/timeline/pdf/Military%20Aircraft%20Crash%20Sites%20in%20Southeast%20Wales.pdf
9. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/_DH100%20prodn%20list.txt

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
19-May-2019 16:35	Dr. John Smith	Added
30-May-2019 15:36	stehlik49	Updated [Operator]
10-Jan-2020 11:10	stehlik49	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator]
15-Apr-2020 21:11	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Source, Narrative]
16-Apr-2020 09:16	Allach	Updated [Operator, Operator]