Date:	Tuesday 6 April 1954
Time:	day
Type:	de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB Mk 5
Owner/operator:	202 AFS RAF
Registration:	WG797
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Staples Farm, Staple Fitzpaine, Somerset -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Take off
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Merryfield, Somerset
Destination airport:	RAF Valley, Anglesey
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB Mk 5 WG797: Delivered 28/9/51. RAF Service was with 102 FRS, 103 FRS and 202 AFS.

Written off (damaged beyond repair) 6/4/54: Engine failure on take off from RAF Merryfield, which caused the aircraft to make an emergency wheels-up belly landing at Staples Farm, Staple Fitzpaine, Somerset. The Vampire had originally come from RAF Valley, in Anglesey, North Wales. Soon after commencing his return journey to North Wales, the pilot began to experience engine trouble, and therefore opted to jettison his underwing fuel tanks over the village of Ashill, Somerset

Looking for somewhere to make a landing, the pilot brought the aircraft down into a wheat field at Staples Farm, Staple Fitzpaine, Somerset, crashing through a hedge before coming to a halt

The pilot - Pilot Officer E. Dyer (aged 22) - stepped from the cockpit of the aircraft, apparently uninjured.

Wreckage of Vampire WG797 was taken to 49 MU RAF Colerne, Wiltshire where the airframe was struck off charge as Cat.5(s) on 8/5/54 and broken up for scrap.

1. Chard & Ilminster News - 10 April 1954
2. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.155 ISBN 0-85130-290-4
3. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983 p 46)
4. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.50
5. Wings Over Somerset: Aircraft Crashes since the End of World War II By Peter Forrester
6. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WG ..

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
08-Jun-2008 14:37	JINX	Added
18-May-2015 17:48	MiG21	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Phase, Departure airport]
07-Apr-2020 20:40	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Location, Source, Narrative]
08-Apr-2020 15:52	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
08-Apr-2020 16:06	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
08-Apr-2020 16:07	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
08-Apr-2020 21:53	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]