Date:	Friday 12 August 1960
Time:	10:38 LT
Type:	Vickers Valiant B(K)1
Owner/operator:	7 Sqn RAF
Registration:	XD864
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 5 / Occupants: 5
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Spanhoe near Harringworth, Northamptonshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Wittering (EGXT)
Destination airport:	RAF Wittering (EGXT)
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
The Valiant took off from runway 26 at Wittering at 10:35 hours on the 12th of August 1960. The intended flight was for navigation training and practice bombing runs and would have taken about six hours to complete. The co-pilot was handling the controls for take off.

The nose landing gear failed to retract on command during the initial climb. One eyewitness reported that during the climb the a/c appeared to initiate a turn to port another witness said it dipped to port. Eyewitnesses reported that the climb was steeper than usual, and after levelling out the a/c flew on for a further 3.75 nautical miles before beginning a "normal" turn to port.

The aircraft turned through 120 degrees and was in line with runway 14 at Spanhoe in what appeared to some eyewitnesses as an attempted landing. An eyewitness reported the aircraft was flying level at about 50 feet above the disused runway and "in line" with the runway. This witness interviewed in 2008 said " I thought the pilot had seen me and tried to avoid hitting me". This witness was sitting on his tractor by the edge of runway 14 at Spanhoe when he heard the Valiant's engines wind up to full revs before the wing dropped and the tip struck the ground. The plane cartwheeled, with the wing fuel tanks exploding as XD864 broke up on the disused airfield. All five POB are believed to have been killed instantly.

The AIB Inspector reported that the "Centre Plane Spar was fractured inboard of the wing attachment bolts, but no investigation of the spar is recorded in the final report of the AIB Inspector. The centre-plane spar was made from DTD683 an aluminium alloy condemned as "too unstable' in 1956.

The board of inquiry into the tragedy found that the bomber had entered a normal turn at a speed of about 160 knots, but with a power setting (6000 revs) too low to maintain height and airspeed, the tests showed that the A/c would have stalled after 90 degrees of turn, however the A/c actually turned through 120 degrees, this error makes the data gleaned in the flight simulator tests questionable though it was used by the BoI to support their narrative.

The BoI say the aircraft stalled, recovered, and then stalled again before colliding with the ground.

This conclusion is based entirely on data collected in a series of flight simulator tests flown after just 3 days of the Investigation, these tests only test the performance of the co-pilot, and never considered that the possibility that a structural failure may have occurred.

The five crew that were killed were:
Captain - Flight Lieutenant Brian J Wickham,
Co-pilot - Flight Lieutenant W R Howard,
Nav/plotter - Flight Lieutenant Harry G Bullen,
Nav/radar - Flight Lieutenant Johnny Ireson,
AEO - Sgt Roy H Johnson.

Flt Lt Brian John Wickham (Captain) aged 38, Flt Lt Henry George Bullen aged 40 and Flt Lt Arthur John Ireson 29 were all cremated at Ipswich Crematorium. Flt Lt William Russell Howard aged 29, was buried at All Saints Churchyard, Wittering.

1. Royal Air Force Board of Inquiry
2. The Times August 13th 1960
3. Eye Witness interviewed in 2008
4. http://www.ukserials.com/losses-1960.htm
5. http://zkt.blackfish.org.uk/XD864/
6. https://www.pprune.org/military-aircrew/267929-valiant-crash-wittering-august-1960-a.html
7. National Archives (PRO Kew) File BT 233/439: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C424560
8. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AVIA 5/39/S2985: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C6578765
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Spanhoe#Closure_and_Valiant_crash
10. http://www.bvror.uk/index.php/articles/post-ww2/507-the-spanhoe-valiant-crash-12th-aug-1960
11. https://www.militaryimages.net/threads/vickers-valiant-xd-864.4833/#post-18667

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
01-May-2009 00:36	angels one five	Added
31-Jul-2009 12:41	Anon.	Updated
22-Aug-2011 12:46	Uli Elch	Updated [Registration, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
27-Dec-2011 07:07	Nepa	Updated [Time, Operator, Source, Narrative]
30-Sep-2013 15:44	TB	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
17-Apr-2014 00:52	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Source, Narrative]
01-Jul-2014 12:41	angels one five	Updated [Narrative]
12-Aug-2014 17:34	Anon.	Updated [Narrative]
09-Nov-2014 07:15	James JUMP	Updated [Operator]
27-Jan-2020 17:44	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Source, Narrative]
27-Jan-2020 17:46	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]