On the 21st of February 1954 the pilot of this Vampire was to carry out a re-familiarisation flight on the type. He took off from Thornaby at 10.42hrs on a dull day. At the controls was a local RAF Auxillary Air Force pilot. At 20,000 feet problems occured, during a practice stall the engine could not be restarted, and at 4,000 feet he called on the radio to say he was baling out. The aircraft dived into the ground vertically at 11.02hrs near Old Lackenby. The bofy of the pilot was found afew feet away attached to an unopened parachute. It was thought he baled out moments before the impact but he was killed when his chute failed. The crash investigation concluded that he would possibly have survived had he been more experienced on the aircraft type and had remembered the correct way to bale out - jettison canopy and invert the aircraft. The aircraft was destroyed, Cat 5/FA Burnt damage was reported.

The aircraft was built to contract 6/ACFT/2981 by E.E.C. at Salemsbury and delivered to the RAF in June 1951 and issued shortly after to Central Gunnery School at Leconfield. At some stage, date not known at present, it was transferred to 608 Sqdn at Thornaby. .

Pilot - P/O Ronald Webster RAF(AAF) (3135026), aged 24, of Carlin How/Kilton, nr Saltburn, Yorkshire. Buried Brotton Cemetery, Yorkshire (grave FA21).

Ronald Webster was born on 14th June 1929. He had only ten hours flying on the Vampire at his death.

I have yet to locate the crash site although it is thought now to be inside the boundary of a large power distribution centre since built over the site. This photograph was taken from the Meteor crash site on the Eston Hills.