Date:	Tuesday 9 December 1947
Time:	day
Type:	Fairey Firefly Mk IV
Owner/operator:	Aeroplane & Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE
Registration:	TW693
MSN:	F.5650
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Codford St. Mary, 7 miles SE of Warminster, Wiltshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Landing
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	Boscombe Down, Salisbury, Wiltshire
Destination airport:	Boscombe Down, Wiltshire

Narrative:
Fairey Firefly TW693 (MSN F.5650), A&AEE Boscombe Down: Written off damaged beyond repair) 9-12-47 when made a forced landing at Codford St. Mary, Wylie Valley, 7 miles South East of Warminster, Wiltshire, and eight miles west of Boscombe Down

The pilot made a forced landing at Codford St. Mary, after failing to allow for sufficient fuel to complete his sortie from Boscombe Down. The forced landing was under full power. The pilot had not done a weather check before departure, and therefore became lost above a low cloud base.

He ignored the advice from ATC (Air Traffic Control) that he was close to the airfield (presumably Boscombe Down), and, with a cloud base of 1,200 feet agl (above ground level) he could have descended for a safe landing at Boscombe Down. Both crew - pilot and civilian Flight Test Observer - were uninjured.

Codford is a civil parish south of Salisbury Plain in the Wylye Valley in Wiltshire, England. Its settlements are the adjacent villages of Codford St Peter and Codford St Mary, which lie some 7 miles (11 km) southeast of Warminster. The two villages are on the A36 road between Salisbury and Warminster.

1. Fleet Air Arm Fixed Wing Aircraft Since 1946 (Ray Sturtivant, Lee Howard & Mick Burrows, Air Britain, 2004)
2. Halley, James (1999). Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
3. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain)
4. Final Landings - A Summary of RAF Aircraft and Combat losses 1946-1949 by Colin Cummings p.354
5. A&AEE Boscombe Down ORB 1-1-48 to 31-1-50: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 29/1216: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4100926
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MoD_Boscombe_Down#Cold_War
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codford

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
05-May-2023 15:43	Dr. John Smith	Added
21-May-2023 08:17	Nepa	Updated