Date:	Friday 7 June 1957
Time:	day
Type:	Hawker Hunter F1
Owner/operator:	229 OCU RAF
Registration:	WT700
MSN:	41H-665517
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	River Taw, near RAF Chivenor, Devon, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Chivenor, Devon [EGDC]
Destination airport:	RAF Chivenor, Devon [EGDC]
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Hawker Hunter F.Mk.1 WT700: First flown at Hawker Aircraft Ltd., Dunsfold, Surrey 10/11/1954. Delivered to the RAF at 5 MU Kemble 1/1/1955. First issued for service to 229 OCU RAF Chivenor, Devon as "RS"

Written off (damaged beyond repair) 7/6/1957:
Force landed into the River Taw, onto a sandbank, after the engine cut out whilst on final approach to RAF Chivenor. Aircraft was submerged by the rising tide of the River Taw before it could be salvaged. Therefore, deemed to have been damaged beyond economic repair, and struck off charge as Cat.5(scrap).

The crash of Hunter WT700 was one of three Hawker Hunters (XF525, WN969 and WT700) which all crashed on the same day (7 June 1957). A contemporary local newspaper combined the three accidents into one article (Birmingham Daily Post - Saturday 8 June 1957). The part of the newspaper article that relates to Hunters WN969 and WT700 was at the end of the report...

"EJECTION ESCAPE
It was the third of three Hunter crashes yesterday.

The first was at Downe, Kent, soon after the aircraft had taken off from Biggin Hill. Flames belched from the aircraft's rear as it left the runway, and three minutes later the pilot, a South African, pulled his blazing machine at rooftop level above farmhouses before using his ejector seat at 800 ft. He landed by parachute unhurt. The Hunter crashed into a field, killing a horse as it exploded.

The second was on sand flats near R.A.F. Chivenor, North Devon. A wing was torn off when the aircraft made a crash landing, but the pilot walked several hundred yards to the aerodrome. The aircraft was later covered by the tide."

WT700 was last reported as one of a large number of Hunters (2 Hunter F.2s, 16 Hunter F.5s and 4 Hunter F.1s (WT698-WT701 inclusive) logged as dumped at Farnborough, Hampshire in September 1964

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.190 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983 p 97)
3. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.250
4. Birmingham Daily Post - Saturday 8 June 1957
5. http://web.archive.org/web/20170421194235/http://www.ejection-history.org.uk:80/PROJECT/YEAR_Pages/1957.htm#jun
6. http://www.ukserials.com/losses-1957.htm
7. https://www.fightercontrol.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=83928&start=20
8. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WT .

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
10-Jan-2009 11:55	ASN archive	Added
20-Mar-2012 08:44	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Phase, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
04-Dec-2018 09:25	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Location, Nature, Operator]
05-Aug-2020 19:03	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Source, Narrative]
06-Aug-2020 20:14	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]