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Date: | Monday 16 August 1954 |
Time: | day |
Type: | de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB Mk 5 |
Owner/operator: | 5 FTS RAF |
Registration: | VV608 |
MSN: | EEP/42... |
Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
Location: | Dry Drayton, 2 miles SW of RAF Oakington, Cambridgeshire, England -
United Kingdom
|
Phase: | Take off |
Nature: | Training |
Departure airport: | RAF Oakington, Cambridgeshire |
Destination airport: | |
Confidence Rating: | Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Narrative:De Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB Mk.5 VV608, 5 FTS RAF: Written off (destroyed) 16/8/54 when aircraft caught fire on take-off and crashed in the RAF Oakington circuit at Dry Drayton, two miles South West of Oakington, Cambridgeshire 16.8.54. Pilot killed.
According to a contemporary newspaper report ("Cambridge Daily News" 16 August 1954):
"The pilot of an RAF Vampire jet trainer from Oakington airfield was killed when his plane crashed into a cornfield at Dry Drayton. He succeeded in missing 18 Council houses, and women picking fruit in a nearby orchard before the plane - smoke pouring from its tail - crashed into a field off the Oakington Road. It is thought the pilot might have been attempting to make a forced landing and crashed through a hedge before skidding along the ground for some distance. The engine and tailplane were 40 yards apart but still intact after the crash"
Crew of Vampire VV608:
Pilot Officer Ralph Douglas Hey (pilot, aged 20)
Sources:
1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.162 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983 p 91)
3. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.83
4. National Archives (PRO Kew) File BT233/1226:
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C424347 5.
http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VV 6.
http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/_DH100%20prodn%20list.txt 7.
http://www.ldhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Oakington-Scrapbook-1897-to-1990.pdf 8.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_Drayton Revision history:
Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
07-Jan-2020 18:14 |
Dr. John Smith |
Added |
07-Jan-2020 19:18 |
stehlik49 |
Updated [Operator, Nature, Operator] |
18-Apr-2020 22:44 |
Dr. John Smith |
Updated [Cn, Operator, Source, Narrative] |
18-Apr-2020 22:45 |
Dr. John Smith |
Updated [Source] |
19-Apr-2020 08:21 |
Investig |
Updated [Operator, Operator] |
11-Jul-2023 22:05 |
Nepa |
Updated [[Operator, Operator]] |