Jet Provost T.3 XM477 near Kirby Hill.
At 08.25hrs on Tuesday, 28th March 1961 this No.1 Flying Training School aircraft took off from Linton on Ouse airfield for what would have been a formation flying exercise. On board was an instructor flying with a pupil pilot, the exercise was to have been the pupil pilot's first experience of formation flying in the Jet Provost which would have seen the instructor fly with him at No.3 in a small formation of aircraft. The instructor later stated that while the take off was normal he had to use almost maximum power to keep up with the other aircraft that were flying on far less power. He later found that he did not have normal control of the the elevator movement. The instructor broke away from the formation to investigate the control issue. The degree he had to move the control column to move the elevator got progressively worse. The pupil was asked to test if his control column was behaving the same, having found it was the instructor took back control and intended on then returning to Linton on Ouse to land. Almost immediately a fire warning light activated in the cockpit. The instructor shut off the engine, pressed the fire extinguisher button and told the pupil to eject. Once the pupil had left the aircraft it went into a nose down attitude and owing to the elevator problem the instructor could not then level out. With the speed increasing he then ejected. As this was happening another Jet Provost was following XM477. The pilot of which stated that some white vapour was seen to come from the aircraft. Once both pilots had ejected the empty aircraft remained in the air for around ten minutes making gentle gliding turns in both directions until it finally crashed near Kirby Hill. It crashed at a shallow angle and travelled some distance from the first impact to where the main wreckage then caught fire. A helicopter from 228 Squadron, Leconfield was despatched to pick up the two pilots but was not required when both were located and transported back to Linton on Ouse by road.
Because the post-crash fire destroyed much of the forward fuselage an initial investgation found no reason for the elevator problem or of the source of the fire warning light activation. The wreckage was transported to an AIB hanger at Croydon for a full examination. It was found that a fuel drain valve had missing nuts, while it was still being held in place by the two remaining nuts it was loose and had no locking wire attached through them. A very similar flying problem was reported with Jet Provost XM424 on 13th April 1961. An investigation with XM424 found that a small fire in the fuselage had damaged the elevator control cable and its tensioner, and that the same fuel drain valve was loose. It was felt highly probable because this part was loose and that because fuel was draining into a collector tank through it, the tank would eventually overfill and be able to escape through the loose valve. The fuel would then be ignited by the hot engine or jet pipe. The fire in XM477 could have beens caused in the same way and also the vapour seen by the pilot in the following aircraft to XM477 was probably witnessing fuel escaping after the engine had been shut down so was not ignited.
Some newspapers elsewhere in the country recorded this incident and stated that the aircraft crashed into a field near Whixley, however, the more local newspapers stated that it overflew Boroughbridge very low and was heading north at that time. They also state that it flew very near the village of Kirby Hill and then crashed into a cornfield 200 yards from the Great North Road. It therefore cannot have crashed at Whixley. I would make a suggestion that one of the pilots may have ejected over Whixley and landed near the village.
Pilot (Instructor) - F/O A F Marshall (Possibly F/O Anthony Frederick Marshall RAF (3518888)).
Pilot (Pupil) - MSn M Dugan RN.