Date:	Thursday 28 October 1948
Time:	day
Type:	Supermarine Spitfire F.24
Owner/operator:	80 Sqn RAF
Registration:	VN323
MSN:	KEA.
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Other fatalities:	1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Hombrink, Castrop-Rauxel, Recklinghausen, BZG, West Germany -   Germany
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Wunstorf, Lower Saxony, West Germany
Destination airport:

Narrative:
VN323: Spitfire F.24, built by Vickers Armstrongs (Supermarine) at Keevil, Trowbridge, Wiltshire with Griffon G61 engine. Test flown by L R Colquhoun at Keevil 23-7-46. To 33MU RAF Lyneham, Wiltshire 4-7-46. To 80 Squadron, RAF Wunstorf, Lower Saxony, West Germany as 9-2-48 as "W2-C"

Written off (destroyed) 28-10-48 in a mid-air collision with Spitfire VN323 (also of 80 Squadron, RAF) and crashed at Hombrink, Castrop-Rauxel, Recklinghausen, North Rhine-Westphalia, BZG, West Germany. Spitfire VN319 was leading a formation of 80 Squadron Spitfire F.24s, when it was struck from below and behind by another 80 Squadron Spitfire F.24 (VN323). The pilot of Spitfire VN319 attempted to bail out, but his parachute opened before he had left the cockpit, and he sustained fatal injuries.

The pilot of Spitfire VN323 survived uninjured; the aircraft was Struck off Charge as Cat. E(FA) on 28-10-48.

1. Halley, James (1999). Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Final Landings: A Summary of RAF Aircraft and Combat Losses 1946 to 1949 by Colin Cummings p.484
3. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain)
4. 80 Squadron ORB 1-1-1946 to 31-12-50: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 27/2434/1: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8439303
5. "RAF Write offs 1948": Air Britain Aeromilitaria No.1 1979: https://air-britain.com/pdfs/aeromilitaria/Aeromilitaria_1979.pdf
6. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/spitfire/p114.html
7. https://allspitfirepilots.org/aircraft/VN323
8. https://www.avialogs.com/spitfire-and-seafire-registry/item/79816-vn323
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._80_Squadron_RAF#Post-World_War_II_and_disbandment
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castrop-Rauxel

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
16-Aug-2023 21:55	Dr. John Smith	Updated
17-Aug-2023 14:43	Nepa	Updated