Date:	Monday 13 May 1957
Time:	12:25
Type:	de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB Mk 5
Owner/operator:	8 FTS RAF
Registration:	WA250
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	near 71 Woodfield Road, Gainsborough, West Lindsey, Lincolnshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Swinderby, Lincolnshire
Destination airport:	RAF Topcliffe, North Yorkshire
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB.Mk.5 WA250: Delivered 23/10/1950. Operational service career was with 60 Squadron, 203 AFS (Advanced Flying School), 208 AFS, 10 FTS, 9 FTS, CFS (Central Flying School) RAF Little Rissington, and 8 FTS RAF Swinderby

Written off (destroyed) 13/5/1957: Broke up in dive out of cloud. The aircraft was being flown on a cross country navigation exercise from RAF Swinderby, Lincolnshire to RAF Topcliffe, North Yorkshire, when it encountered adverse weather conditions including cumulonimbus cloud. The aircraft was seen to dive out of this cloud, and to break up in flight. The pilot managed to abandon the aircraft in flight, but there were problems with his parachute which meant that his bale-out was unsuccessful, and he was killed on impact with the ground.

According to an eyewitness report:
"I was sat having lunch at the table which was under the window at the back of 71 Woodfield Road. The jet almost certainly passed directly overhead in a North to South direction although we saw nothing. I would not hazard a guess at its height but the cutlery on the table vibrated from the noise which was extremely loud giving the impression it was dangerously low (hindsight). My wife was at the school and does not remember hearing anything.

The witness, Harold Laughton, worked at the REME camp which was some 400 yards North and West of my home stated he saw it which raises the question, why was the aircraft so low? The engine was so loud it must have been on full throttle. If this is the case would the engine still be running if it had already been struck by lightning? Would not the strike have caused a 'flame-out'?

The wreckage/crash site is 600 yards due South of my home. Did the lightning strike happen during the couple of seconds taken to cover this distance? Assuming flying speed to be 200 mph the aircraft's velocity would be around 100 yards per second. Having worked on turbine impellers (jet engines) for many years I can only imagine that if it was damaged in any way it would disintegrate in an instant. Could it have been a bird-strike, or clipped a tree?

Apparently the engine in this aircraft was prone to problems but either way the town got really lucky that day and one shudders to think what would have happened had it dropped from the sky just one second earlier.

Crew of Vampire WA250:
Acting Pilot Officer Thomas Patrick CRONIN, RAF (pilot, Service Number 2765725, aged 25)

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.189 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983 p 9)
3. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.247
4. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AVIA 5/37/S2878: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C6578658
5. https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1199647/
6. http://www.ukserials.com/losses-1957.htm
7. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/_DH100%20prodn%20list.txt
8. http://www.planetrace.co.uk/1950-1959_26.html
9. http://www.bcar.org.uk/1950s-incident-logs#1957
10. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WA

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
02-Mar-2008 00:37	JINX	Added
19-Jun-2008 04:42	JINX	Updated
20-Nov-2014 11:38	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Location, Phase, Departure airport, Source, Embed code, Narrative]
20-Nov-2014 11:44	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Embed code]
18-May-2015 18:14	MiG21	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Operator]
04-Aug-2020 20:08	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Location, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
04-Aug-2020 21:05	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
05-Aug-2020 09:04	MiG15	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Nature, Narrative, Operator]