Date:	Thursday 8 August 1957
Time:	morning
Type:	de Havilland DH.115 Vampire T Mk 11
Owner/operator:	4 FTS RAF
Registration:	XE866
MSN:	15400
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Moscar Moor, Stanage Edge, 6 miles N of Hathersedge, Derbyshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Worksop, Nottinghamshire (EGYW)
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
de Havilland DH.115 Vampire T.Mk 11 XE866: Delivered 27/10/1954. Sole operational service career was with 4 FTS, RAF Worksop, Nottinghamshire.

Written off (destroyed) 8/8/1957: At 07:50 on the 8th August 1957 Flying Officers Jones and Brett took off in Vampire XE866 for a training flight from RAF Worksop. F/O Brett, under the instruction of Jones, was to carry out a mixture of high speed flying, medium level aerobatics and controlled descent through cloud.

F/O Brett had been undertaking a training session at 40,000 feet, culminating in a high speed descent at 85% the speed of sound. They were in the process of heading back to base at RAF Worksop after a controlled descent through cloud, when the crash occurred.

The Board of Inquiry determined that the cause of the crash was a misreading of the altimeter. It should be noted that the device used in Vampire T.11s was the Mk.14 altimeter, which was later discontinued, because the needle showing tens of thousands of feet was tiny, and easily obscured by the other hands, rather like the hands of a watch or clock temporarily obscuring each other.

It is possible that, during the high speed descent, Flying Officer Brett may well have misread the tens of thousands of feet indicated on the altimeter, and the Inquiry believed the same, that both crew men thought they were some 10,000 feet higher than they actually were as they descended.

Note that some sources give the crash location as "Crashed into Moscar Moor just below Crow Chin on Stanage Edge"., and others as "High Neb, Stanage Edge". The official Board of Inquiry into the incident (held at the National Archives at Kew under file reference AVIA/5/37/2888 - see link #4) gives the crash location as "Worksop" - which is where the aircraft took off from, not where it come down!

Crew of Vampire XE866:
Flying Officer Philip Redvers JONES, RAF (QFI Flight Instructor, Service Number 4091376, aged 23) - killed on active service 8/8/1957
Flying Officer Derek John BRETT, RAF (Pupil Pilot under Instruction, aged 26) - killed on active service 8/8/1957, buried at Retford Road Cemetery, Worksop.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.192 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft XA100-XZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 2001 p 25)
3. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.258
4. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AVIA 5/37/S2888: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C6578668
5. http://www.ukserials.com/losses-1957.htm
6. https://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/crash_sites/peak-district/de-havilland-vampire-xe866-stanage-edge/
7. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=XE
8. http://aircrashsites.co.uk/air-crash-sites-5/de-havilland-vampire-xe866/
9. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/_DH115%20prodn%20list.txt
10. https://www.ab-ix.co.uk/pdfs/dh115.pdf
11. https://peakwreckhunters.blogspot.com/2008/04/dehavilland-vampire-t-mk11-xe866.html
12. http://rafworksop.btck.co.uk/AircraftBasedatWorksop
13. http://rafworksop.btck.co.uk/ThosewhoservedanddiedfortheRAF

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
09-Aug-2020 17:44	Dr. John Smith	Added
10-Aug-2020 07:41	MIG21	Updated [Operator, Operator]