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1956 Hawker Hunter multiple aircraft accident

Field	Value
name	1956 Hawker Hunter multiple aircraft accident
occurrence_type	Accident
image	Hawker Hunter F1 WT680 J (6869235518).jpg
caption	A Hawker Hunter F1, of the type involved in the incident (seen here in preservation in 2012)
date
fatalities	1
survivors	5
plane1_type	Hawker Hunter F1
plane1_operator	Royal Air Force
plane1_tailnum	{{Plainlist
plane1_origin	RAF West Raynham
plane1_destination	RAF Marham

WW635
WT692
WT629
WT639
WW633
WW603 On 8 February 1956 the Royal Air Force lost six Hawker Hunter jet fighters in a multiple aircraft accident. Eight aircraft from RAF West Raynham had been carrying out a 4x4 dogfight exercise at 45,000 ft. Upon completion of the exercise, the eight Hunters diverted to RAF Marham, but due to bad weather, six of the aircraft were lost, including one fatality.

Accident

The eight Hunter F1s from the Day Fighter Leader Squadron of the Central Fighter Establishment departed RAF West Raynham, Norfolk, England at 10:50 to carry out the exercise at 45,000 ft in the local area. Due to the expected bad weather later in the day the aircraft were scheduled to return to West Raynham overhead by 11:15. By 11:00 the weather at West Raynham had deteriorated with poor visibility and the aircraft were told to divert to nearby RAF Marham for a visual approach.

The visibility suddenly reduced but due to the close proximity of the aircraft to each other it was not possible to complete ground controlled approaches. In the following confusion and with only 10 minutes of fuel remaining, only two aircraft landed successfully.

;WT629 :Descended to 600 ft, but, unable to see the ground, he climbed away to 4,000 ft and ejected with the aircraft crashing into a field 2 mi northwest of Swaffham. ;WT639 :Descended to 600 ft, but, unable to see the ground, he climbed away. The pilot ejected when the engine flamed out. The aircraft crashed into a forest 2+1/2 mi southwest of Swaffham. ;WW633 :Descended to 500 ft, but, unable to see the ground, he climbed away. The pilot ejected when the engine flamed out. The aircraft crashed into a field 3+1/2 mi northwest of Swaffham. ;WW639 :Descended to 250 ft, but, unable to see the ground, he climbed away. The pilot ejected when fuel was exhausted. The aircraft crashed 3 mi south of Swaffham. ;WW635 :Crashed 4+1/2 mi northwest of Swaffham, pilot killed. ;WW603 :Belly-landed following engine flame-out just east of the airfield, pilot unhurt.

Aftermath

Questions were asked in Parliament about the loss of six aircraft worth about £750,000 and the suspicion—expressed by the Labour MP George Wigg—that "Marks I and II are liable to be deficient in fuel if a crisis arises". Concern was also raised about the carrying out of the exercise in the expected weather conditions.

Investigation

The Board of Inquiry (BoI) reported that the primary cause of the accident was the sudden deterioration in the weather. The board also said it was an error of judgement to divert the aircraft to Marham on the assumption that they could do a visual landing.

The BoI stated that the decision to fly in the weather conditions was proper and reasonable, the pilots were all competent, the aircraft were serviceable and had adequate fuel and endurance for the planned mission.

The Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Fighter Command decided that disciplinary action should be taken against officers in charge of flying operations at West Raynham. One officer was reproved and removed from his job and three other officers were reproved.

References

(17 February 1956). "Hunter Mishap".
[[Nigel Birch, Baron Rhyl. (25 April 1956). "Hunter Aircraft (Report of Inquiry)". [[Hansard.
"Ejections and Bale Outs 1956". ejection-history.org.uk.
(21 March 1956). "Hunter Aircraft (Crashes)". [[Hansard.
(9 February 1956). "Hunter Aircraft (Crashes)". [[Hansard.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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