Date:	Tuesday 17 May 1955
Time:	day
Type:	Westland Wyvern S Mk 4
Owner/operator:	827 Sqn FAA RN
Registration:	VZ785
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	HMS Eagle, English Channel, off South coast of England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Landing
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RNAS Ford, (HMS Peregrine) Yapton, West Sussex
Destination airport:	HMS Eagle, English Channel, off South coast of England
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Westland Wyvern S.4 VZ785 (135/J) 827 Sqdn, FAA RN: Written off (destroyed) 27 May 1955 when crashed on landing aboard HMS Eagle, at sea off the south coast of England. According to a contemporary newspaper report ("Illustrated London News" - Saturday 28 May 1955):

"A single-seater Westland Wyvern fighter crashed into the funnel of the aircraft carrier H.M.S. Eagle on May 17 during deck-landing trials. When about to land, the pilot was waved off, but in accelerating, his engine stalled, and the aircraft crashed into the port after-side of the funnel, the engine remaining wedged in the casing. The pilot was seriously injured, and was removed by helicopter to a Royal Naval hospital. The H.M.S. Eagle later entered Portsmouth Dockyard for repairs".

The pilot of Wyvern VZ785 was Lt Jim Jarrett in Wyvern VZ785 whilst attached to 827 squadron, who was eventually recovered from the wreckage badly injured but who went on to make a successful recovery. In a bizarre twist to the tale I understand that Jim went on to father a child with the daughter of the surgeon who operated on him!

Another contemporary syndicated report of the same incident reads as follows:

""PORTSMOUTH, England AP – A navy fighter plane crashed into the funnel of the 36,000-ton British aircraft carrier Eagle today during deck landing exercises in the English Channel. The pilot was seriously injured. The admiralty said the plane was given a signal to make another circuit as it came into land. The pilot increased speed but the engine stalled and the plane plowed into the rear of the funnel, burying the engine in the steam pipes."

First cruise for full-scale training exercises without operational restrictions for the Westland Wyvern S Mk. 4, deployed aboard HMS Eagle with Nos. 813 and 827 Squadrons, begins inauspiciously when Wyvern, VZ785, '135/J', of 827 Naval Air Squadron, attempting a go-around after misjudged approach, strikes ship's funnel, forcing the carrier to return to Portsmouth to have Armstrong Siddeley Python turboprop engine extracted from funnel "in which it was stuck like a dart." Repairs delay cruise by a fortnight.

[An article published in the 1976 debut issue of Air Enthusiast Quarterly, by William Green and Gordon Swanborough, with Harald Penrose, - see link #3 - incorrectly gives the accident date as 30 September 1955].

1. Fleet Air Arm Fixed Wing Aircraft Since 1946 (Ray Sturtivant et al, Air Britain, 2004 p 600)
2. Associated Press, "Plane Crashes Aboard Carrier During Exercises", Charleston Evening Post, Charleston, South Carolina, Tuesday 17 May 1955, Volume 61, Number 195, page 6-A.
3. Green, William, and Swanborough, Gordon, with Penrose, Harald, "Westland's Winged Dragon", Air Enthusiast Quarterly, Number One, Bromley, Kent, UK, 1976, page 32.
4. Illustrated London News" - Saturday 28 May 1955
5. http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=13292.0
6. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VZ
7. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235021066-trumpeter-wyvern-finished-rfi-posted/&do=findComment&comment=2727825
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_military_aircraft_(1955%E2%80%931959)#195
9. Photo of wreckage #1: https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1164888
10. Photo of wreckage #2: https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1164889

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
12-Feb-2020 00:36	Dr. John Smith	Added
12-Feb-2020 00:44	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
12-Feb-2020 09:03	stehlik49	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Narrative, Operator]
20-Jun-2020 13:04	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]