Date:	Friday 12 October 1956
Time:	19:10
Type:	de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB Mk 5
Owner/operator:	7 FTS RAF
Registration:	VZ874
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Myndd Mawr Mountain, Snowdonia, 6 miles East of Caernarfon -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Valley, Anglesey, Wales
Destination airport:	RAF Valley, Anglesey
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
On the 12th October 1956, at 19:00 hours this aircraft, the De Havilland Vampire FB.Mk.5 VZ874 took off from RAF Valley on nearby Anglesey. The pilot, a member of the Fleet Air Arm, Sub-Lt Roy Davies was in training on Vampires and had just begun his night flying training having already flown a total of 110 hours in the type. His brief that night was to fly locally and do circuits (landings and takeoffs at the airfield) using IFR (Instrument Flight Rating) procedures

Flying by instruments alone and only ten minutes after taking off the aircraft crashed into the West of the summit of the 2,290-foot Mynydd Mawr in Snowdonia, approximately six miles East of Caernarfon. (At approximate coordinates 53°04.127’N, 4°10.845’W). Unfortunately Sub-Lt Roy Davies was killed in the crash. Officially he was attached to "HMS Goldcrest" the Navy's name for the Royal Naval Air Station at Brawdy.

The aircraft is said to have exploded on impact many parts of the aircraft continued across the summit and fell into the the cwm below on the East face of the summit. The official Board of Inquiry into the accident attributed the cause of the crash to pilot error, and to the pilot not following the correct procedures for IFR flying.

At the crash site there are two piles of stones - one in the shape of the letter "V", and the other in the shape of the letter "Z" - a reference to the aircraft's "VZ" serial

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.183 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983 p 107)
3. National Archives (PRO Kew) File BT233/363: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C424484
4. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VZ
5. https://militaryaircraftcrashsites.blogspot.com/2015/11/de-havilland-vampire-vz874.html
6. https://geotopoi.wordpress.com/2010/06/20/mynydd-mawr-de-havilland-vampire-vz874-no-7-flying-training-school-12-oct-1956/
7. http://aircrashsites.co.uk/post-war-crash-sites/p109/
8. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/_DH100%20prodn%20list.txt
9. https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5867397
10. https://peakwreckhunters.blogspot.com/2008/08/vampire-vz874-scraps.html
11. http://www.ukserials.com/losses-1956.htm
12. https://www.naval-history.net/xDKCas1956-59.htm

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
21-Jan-2020 19:33	Dr. John Smith	Added
21-Jan-2020 22:08	stehlik49	Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Operator]