Date:	Friday 30 August 1957
Time:	day
Type:	Hawker Hunter F Mk 5
Owner/operator:	34 Sqn RAF
Registration:	WP140
MSN:	S4/U/3019
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	RAF Biggin Hill, Kent, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Landing
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Biggin Hill, Kent
Destination airport:	RAF Tangmere, West Sussex
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Hawker Hunter F.Mk.5 WP140: Delivered 22-6-55 to 45 MU. To 34 Squadron (as 'R') at Tangmere. Sustained Cat.3(Repairable) damage at Biggin Hill after a minor accident on 30-8-57. During engine start at RAF Biggin Hill, Kent, a spark ignited spilt fuel on the ground. This set fire to the aircraft before it could be towed out of the way of the flames

Although the damage to WP140 was slight, due to the Hunter F.Mk.5 being withdrawn from service, WP140 was downgraded to Cat.5 and written off.

Re-Cat.5(G/I) as ground instructional airframe 7550M, and allocated to 12 SoTT RAF Melksham 7-12-57 for ground instructional use.

This may have been either short-lived, or cancelled altogether, as the following Hunters were all noted as fuselages dumped at Farnborough in 1959: WN964 C 41 Sqn, WN966 M 41 Sqn, WN981, WP108 S 41 Sqn, WP110, WP111 M 34 Sqn, WP117 N 41 Sqn, WP140, WP141 B 41 Sqn, WP181, and WP183.

All were Hunter F5s and were from No. 1 (Tangmere), 34 (Tangmere) and 41 Sqn (Biggin Hill), who all retired their Hunter F5s in 1957-58. One source states that WP140 was never used as a Ground Instructional Airframe, and was dumped at Farnborough by September 1959.

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 WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983 p 81)
3. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.262
4. http://www.ukserials.com/losses-1957.htm
5. https://www.airteamimages.com/hawker-hunter_WP183_united-kingdom---royal-air-force_144151_large.html
6. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WP
7. http://www.planetrace.co.uk/1950-1959_26.html

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
10-Jan-2009 11:55	ASN archive	Added
21-Mar-2012 09:01	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Phase, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
21-Mar-2012 10:23	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Departure airport, Narrative]
17-Aug-2012 01:22	Nepa	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location]
10-Aug-2020 20:29	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
26-Jun-2023 21:19	Nepa	Updated [[Time, Aircraft type, Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]]