Date:	Tuesday 8 May 1951
Time:	day
Type:	de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB Mk 5
Owner/operator:	229 OCU RAF
Registration:	VZ330
MSN:	EEP/42...
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Marston Magna, 5 miles north of Yeovil, Somerset, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Chivenor, Barnstaple, Devon (EGDC)
Destination airport:

Narrative:
de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB.Mk.5 VZ330, 229 OCU RAF: delivered 30/3/1950. Written off 8/6/1951 when crashed at Marston Mgna, 5 miles north of Yeovil, Somerset. During a sortie from RAF Chivenor, Barnstaple, Devon, the aircraft started a mock attack on a target. However, instead of "peeling off" to dive onto the target, the aircraft instead went into a half roll, from which it did not recover, before diving into the ground. The pilot was killed.

Crew of Vampire VZ330:
Pilot Officer Ronald David Jones, RAF (pilot,aged 23) - killed on actvie service 8/6/1951

Marston Magna (also known as Broad or Great Marston) is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Yeovil in the South Somerset district. It is on the border with Dorset, which is why some published sources give the crash location as "Marston Magna, Sherborne, Dorset". (Sherborne is five miles to the south-east, along the B3148 road) . I saw this accident. It was in a field off Marston Road in Sherborne,not at Marston Magna.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.115 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Last Take-off: A Record of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 Colin Cummings p 145
3. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983)
4. Wings Over Somerset: Aircraft Crashes since the End of World War II By Peter Forrester
5. 229 OCU ORB (Operation Record Book)(Air Ministry Form AM/F.540) for the period 1/1/1951 to 31/12/1955: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 29/2167 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4101877
6. http://dorset.hampshireairfields.co.uk/dorcrash.html
7. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VZ
8. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/_DH100%20prodn%20list.txt
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marston_Magna

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
28-Jan-2021 23:39	Dr. John Smith	Added
28-Jan-2021 23:43	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
29-Jan-2021 09:56	Werich26	Updated [Operator, Location, Operator]
09-Mar-2021 20:17	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
26-Sep-2023 16:39	smudger	Updated [[Source]]