On Friday the 6th of June 1986 two Jet Provosts were on a training flight over North Yorkshire when they collided in mid-air when visual contact was lost in a tail chase. The leader then noticed the other aircraft ahead of him was unable to avoid it and sliced off its tail section. All three crew (two in one aircraft and one in the other) ejected safely. Both aircraft crashed into woodland in the region of High Leys Farm, Rievaulx.

Jet Provost XW407 was built by B.A.C. at Luton to contract KC/E/124. Its first flight was in July 1971 and it was ready and awaiting collection at Luton on 5th August 1971 when it was alloted to 3 FTS at Leeming on 9th August 1971 and coded "-50". It was placed in storage at Leeming without a code on 3rd January 1975 and later loaned to 1 FTS at Linton-on-Ouse and flown uncoded from April 1975. It went to BAe for conversion to a T5A on 13th October 1975 and delivered to 3 FTS at Leeming on 21st January 1976 and placed in store. It was transferred to 5 MU at Kemble on 11th February 1976 before being issued to 3 FTS at Leeming on 7th March 1979 and coded "-47". It was transferred to 7 FTS Church Fenton on 31st May 1979 and coded "-58" and later recoded "-122" in October 1979. Following the incident detailed above Cat.5(s)FA damage was recorded and the aircraft was written off. The photograph at the top of this page shows XW407.

Pilot - F/Lt Brian R Iddon RAF (8141030) - Seriously injured.

The photograph above shows the aircraft in the wood, the photograph is believed to be from possibly an RAF magazine or report on the accident which I was given a copy of the photograph during the early years of my research, unfortunately I do not have the name of the publication to credit it properly. This was one incident I remember happening as I was a boy growing up in Helmsley but was too young to be allowed to go and find the aircraft at the time.

In 2005 John Skinn and myself began the difficult task of trying to find where XW407 and XW411 had crashed and searched a huge area of woodland over a period of weeks, in Summer 2006 we located the site of where one aircraft had crashed mainly thanks to a press photograph and the photograph shown above, the photograph below shows the same site as pictured in the older photograph shown above. No wreckage was found although a lump of chain was found left behind after the aircraft was recovered.

In 2010 I revisited the site after the long winter and before the plants had begun to sprout again. A number of tiny flakes of bright red paint were found in the grass and two peices of aircraft alluminium were found, one baring a part number and inspection stamp. The underside of this type of training aircraft was painted in a bright red scheme.

One of a number of flakes of red paint found at the crash site.

The etched number sequence (shown below) was found on the peice (shown above).

The EEP inspection stamp found on one of the parts at the crash site. This number confirms the site as being an aircraft crash site. This one small stamp tells a story of aircraft manufacturing in Great Britain and why a BAC built aircraft would carry EEP stamps. EEP refers to the English Electric company based near Preston, English Electric were part of BAC (British Aircraft Corporation) which formed in 1960 from what remained of Hunting, Vickers-Armstrong, English Electric and Bristol. Under the new name BAC built the Jet Provost. English Electric clearly were still manufacturing parts under their old identity. BAC later merged with Hawker Siddeley and Scottish Aviation and is now know as Brish Aerospace (BAe).