Jet Provost T.3 XN642 near Scruton.
On 19th February 1963 this No.3 Flying Training School aircraft took off from Leeming airfield with an instructor flying with a pupil. Almost immediately after taking off the engine flamed out. With very little height available to do anything the two aircrew ejected at very low level near Scruton. The aircraft fell near the village having damaged power cables as it hit the ground. Owing to both airmen ejecting at such low level, the pupil left at around 200 feet and the instructor at not much more that 100 feet above the ground, both their parachutes did not have time to fully deploy. The instructor landed in a large tree and possibly the same tree underwhich the aircraft crashed. The pupil unfortunately hit a stone wall and then fell onto a road, he sustained serious injuries to his legs and head. While both men were taken to the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton, the pupil sadly died the following day.
Pilot (Instructor) - F/Lt William George Gambold RAF (3523290). Injured.
Pilot (Pupil) - P/O Adrian Keith Macklen RAF (4231512), aged 19. Died of injuries. Buried Minster Cemetery, Henlow, Bedfordshire.
Adrian Macklen lived at Acol, Kent as a young child and was educated at Birchington Primary School before he and his family moved to Wiltshire. He joined ATC at sixteen years old and was awarded a gliding licence while at Manden College, Bedfordshire. He then joined the RAF at eighteen. His funeral service was held at Birchington Parish Church.