Jet Provost T.3 XM428 near Northallerton.
At 16.47hrs on 20th April 1965 Jet Provost XM428 took off from Leeming airfield with the crews detailed to undertake a training flight with No.3 Flying Training School. On board was an
instructor flying with a pupil with two hour flying practice previously flown and the purpose of the flight was to give him dual instruction training to fly straight and level. After taking off this
aircraft began to climb away through cloud and at around 5,500 feet the instructor made a brief check on the oxygen system. When he looked up again another aircraft was seen very close by. A collision could
not be prevented and the nose / cockpit XM428 struck the tail of the other aircraft, which was Jet Provost XN631, also of the same flying training school. The cockpit area of XM428 received extensive damage;
and both pilots were almost certainly rendered unconsious. The ejector seat containing the instructor was twisted off the airfield and fell away although the parachute deployed and while the pilot landed
still attached to his seat, he survived. The pupil pilot did not clear the aircraft and his body was found with the aircraft when it crashed into a field two miles east of Northallerton in the Bullamoor
area.
The other aircraft was Jet Provost XN631, also a No.3 Flying Training School aircraft. This had part of it's tail removed and also went out of control but the crew were able to eject and land safely.
XN631 then went on to crash in the same area. This is detailed on its own webpage. The RAF recovered both wrecked aircraft to the scrap heap at Dishforth airfield where they remained for some months.
Pilot - P/O David Christopher Pack RAF (4230715).
Pupil - P/O Laurence Mead RAF (4232372), aged 18. Buried Leeming Churchyard, Yorkshire.
Laurence Mead was born on 16th December 1946 at Welshpool, Montgomeryshire. He was initially on Course 16 at No.3 FTS but was suspended for medical reasons in January 1965, resuming his training on Course 17 in April 1965.
He was buried at Leeming Churchyard.
