Date:	Thursday 16 March 1950
Time:	14:30
Type:	de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB Mk 5
Owner/operator:	RAF Flying College
Registration:	VV680
MSN:	EEP/42...
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Aircraft missing
Location:	North Sea, 1.5 miles ESE of Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Manby, Lincolnshire
Destination airport:	RAF Manby
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB.Mk 5 VV680: Delivered 2/5/1949. Written off (destroyed) 16/3/1950 when crashed into the North Sea, one-and-a-half miles East-South-East of Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire. On a training flight from RAF Manby, the aircraft entered a vertical spin to the right, from an altitude of approximately 4,000 feet, and then recovered before diving again at approximately 1,000 feet. The aircraft recovered a second time, at an altitude of between 500 and 750 feet, but then dived steeply once more, and this time failing to recover before diving into the North Sea. The pilot was killed. His body was never recovered despite an extensive air/sea search over 36-hours.

Crew of Vampire VV680:
Wing-Commander Roderick Hugh McConnell DSO, DFC, RAF (pilot, Service Number 33268, aged 33) - killed on active service 15/3/1950. Rod was a Coastal Command pilot who was Wing-Commander (Flying) with the Banff Strike Wing 1944-45 having previously completed three full tours of duty. He was awarded the DFC in August 1940 for heroism in combat when his Avro Anson of 1 Coast Artillery Unit at RAF Hawkinge was ambushed during a reconnaissance mission over Calais. He was also Mentioned in Despatches. He was at Manby attending a Senior Officer Course to convert onto jets. The crash happened on his first flight in a Vampire, cause unknown.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.90 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983)
3. Last Take Off; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p.41
4. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VV
5. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/_DH100%20prodn%20list.txt
6. http://www.bcar.org.uk/1950s-incident-logs#1950
7. http://www.ukserials.com/prodlists.php?type=972
8. http://www.rafcommands.com/archive/10773.php
9. Research by contributor into pilot's biography, primarily National Archives.

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
15-Dec-2020 18:43	Dr. John Smith	Added
15-Dec-2020 18:44	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
13-May-2021 20:04	Anon.	Updated [Operator, Location, Operator]
21-Dec-2023 12:53	Dr Paul Allonby	Updated [Time, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Damage, Narrative]