Date:	Tuesday 6 November 1951
Time:	night
Type:	de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB Mk 5
Owner/operator:	229 OCU RAF
Registration:	WA423
MSN:	EEP/42...
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Saunton Sands, 2 miles west of RAF Chivenor, Barnstaple, Devon -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Military
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:
Vampire WA423: delivered 14/6/1951. Written off 6/11/1951, when crashed at Saunton Sands, two miles west of RAF Chivenor, Barnstaple, Devon. The aircraft was on a GCA (Ground Controlled Approach), and, at the point where ATC (Air Traffic Control) switched from "long range" to "local", observers on the airfield saw the aircraft assume a high rate of descent, and dived into sand dunes at Saunton Sands, two miles west of the airfield. The pilot was killed

Crew:
F/Sgt Charles Leslie (pilot) RAFVR - killed

The subsequent RAF Board of Inquiry concluded that the accident was due to a combination of poor IFR (instrument flying) and windscreen icing, which reduced the pilot's visibility.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.121 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Last Take-off: A Record of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 Colin Cummings p 193
3. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain 1983)
4. 229 OCU ORB (Operation Record Book)(Air Ministry Form AM/F.540) for the period 1/1/1951 to 31/12/1955: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 29/2167 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4101877
5. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WA
6. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/_DH100%20prodn%20list.txt
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saunton_Sands

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
29-May-2008 02:59	JINX	Added
16-May-2015 17:19	Xindel	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Destination airport]
09-Jan-2020 12:24	stehlik49	Updated [Aircraft type, Location, Operator]
13-Feb-2021 17:53	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
13-Feb-2021 20:58	Dr.Roup	Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Destination airport, Narrative, Operator]
14-Feb-2021 00:17	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
09-Mar-2021 20:20	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]