Date:	Wednesday 17 August 1955
Time:	day
Type:	Canadair Sabre F4 (F-86E)
Owner/operator:	26 Sqn RAF
Registration:	XB700
MSN:	486
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Other fatalities:	1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	West Camel, 3 miles from RNAS Yeovilton, Somerset -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Oldenburg, West Germany (ETNO)
Destination airport:	RNAS Yeovilton, Ilchester, Somerset (EGDY)
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Canadair CL-13 (F-86E) Sabre: Diverted to RAF before RCAF serial 19586 marked, became XB700 in RAF service. First flight on 14 February 1953. Delivered 4 May 1953. Used by the Sabre Conversion Flight at RAF Wildenrath, Germany, and by No. 71 Squadron in Germany, then by No. 26 Squadron at Oldenburg, Germany, coded "B",

Written off 17 August 1955, when Hawker Sea Hawk FB.5 WM964 '167-C' of 806 NAS Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm crashed and destroyed following a mid air collision with Canadair Sabre F.4 XB700 'B' of 26 Squadron RAF. The Sabre was orbiting Yeovilton, Somerset at 1,000 ft three miles east of the airfield when it was struck by the Sea Hawk which was carrying out a GCA approach. According to a contemporary newspaper report ("Western Gazette" - 18 August 1955):

"Wreckage from this aircraft fell onto the lawn of a house in West Camel, barely six feet away from the two-month-old baby of Mrs. Audrey Davis, who lay sleeping in a pram. Sadly one of the pilots was killed. One of the pilots from the two aircraft managed to eject, and was seen floating down to earth in his parachute, but he was somehow killed in the process"

Both aircraft crashed at West Camel, Somerset, killing the pilots of each aircraft.

Crew of Sabre XB700:
Flying Officer George Kenneth Macleod RAF (pilot, Service Number 582445, aged 27) - killed on active service 17/8/55, buried at St. Helen's Churchyard, Benson, Oxfordshire

West Camel is a village and civil parish in south Somerset, England, about 7 miles north of the town of Yeovil. It lies either side of the River Cam, just south of the A303

NOTE: Some sources (see link #3) give the aircraft involved as Sabre XB808 of 147 Squadron RAF [sic]. However, while it is true that Sabre XB808 was involved in a fatal crash on the same day (17/8/55) it crashed as "I" of 20 Squadron when it suffered a high speed stall during a high G manoeuvre when pulling up from an attack run on the Meppen Range, West Germany. It hit the ground and exploded killing the pilot.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.171 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft XA100-XZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 2001 p 10)
3. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.151
4. Wings Over Somerset: Aircraft Crashes since the End of World War II By Peter Forrester
5. Western Gazette - 18 August 1955
6. https://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/350220-sabre-jet-crash.html
7. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=XB
8. http://www.rwrwalker.ca/RCAF_19551_19600_detailed.htm
9. https://www.naval-history.net/xDKCas1955.htm
10. http://www.ukserials.com/losses-1955.htm

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
23-Feb-2011 14:32	Masen63	Added
20-Jan-2012 13:09	Masen63	Updated [Date, Total occupants, Phase, Destination airport, Narrative]
27-Dec-2013 18:58	TB	Updated [Date, Aircraft type, Registration, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Damage, Narrative]
28-Jan-2020 22:40	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Cn, Operator, Location, Phase, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
28-Jan-2020 22:45	stehlik49	Updated [Operator, Operator]
29-Jan-2020 16:55	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
26-May-2020 21:56	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
26-May-2020 22:03	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]