Date:	Tuesday 25 November 1952
Time:	day
Type:	de Havilland DH.112 Venom FB.1
Owner/operator:	A&AEE Boscombe Down
Registration:	WE258
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Ogbury Camp, Durnford, 2 miles W of Boscombe Down, Wiltshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Boscombe Down, Wiltshire (EGDM)
Destination airport:	RAF Boscombe Down, (EGDM)
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
DeHavilland DH.112 Venom FB.1 WE258: Built by DH Hatfield as the 4th production Venom FB.1. Delivered 12/2/52, but never saw RAF service, Retained by the Manufacturers and the A&AEE Boscombe Down for test flying, particularly related to gunnery and bombing trials. Sixty-two air firing sorties were carried out with WE258 in five months between 7/3/52 and 12/8/52

Written off (destroyed) 25/11/52: Collided with Vickers Valetta VW203 of 30 Squadron, RAF, soon after joining the circuit at Boscombe Down, tearing off starboard wing. The Valetta crash-landed without fatalities one and a half miles west of Boscombe Down. The Venom dived into the ground killing the pilot at Ogbury Camp, Durnford, 2 miles West of Boscombe Down, Wiltshire. The Venom was involved in "bomb handling" trials on the Larkhill Ranges on Salisbury Plain.

Test Pilot: Squadron Leader Christorpher Gordon Clark DFC, RAF, "A" Squadron, A&AEE Boscombe Down (Service Number 109031) - killed on test flight 25/11/52.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.137 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983 p 32)
3. Last Take Off; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p.313
4. https://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/memorial/entry.php?id=223
5. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/_DH112%20prodn%20list.txt
6. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WE
7. https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-vickers-607-aletta-c1-raf-boscombe-down
8. A&AEE Declassified Report: https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD0005795.pdf .

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
03-Jun-2008 23:55	JINX	Added
18-Jun-2008 00:53	JINX	Updated
26-Jan-2013 15:34	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Destination airport, Narrative]
14-Oct-2013 11:19	Nepa	Updated [Operator]
07-Jun-2020 18:15	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
08-Jun-2020 18:48	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
30-Mar-2021 16:51	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
30-Mar-2021 16:56	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]