On 7th January 1971, in broad daylight, an Avro Vulcan XM610
Bomber soared across the skies of the North-East before crashing into a field
near Wingate in Co.Durham. There was no
loss of life, but the incident has entered local folklore – being especially
vivid in the memories of those children of the local junior school who were
staring up at the roaring aircraft as it fell to earth yards from their
playground.
It all started as a routine practise sortie across the North Sea and the
rural reaches of the Borders, until metal fatigue in one of the engines sent
the warplane and its five-man crew into panic stations. As Captain Bob Alcock ordered his crew to
eject one by one, he wrestled with the controls with ever-increasing
desperation – but all to no avail, the Vulcan giving up the ghost as it
careered across Northumberland and East Durham.
Alcock directed the aircraft sea-ward and ejected. Unfortunately, the Vulcan had other ideas and
dipped downwards, smashing deep into a farmer’s field between Wingate and
Station Town – 100 yards from the aforementioned school. For their attempts to save the plane, and
their efforts to steer it clear of settlements, the crew all received awards –
Alcock gaining the Air Force Cross.
More detail can be found at www.neam.co.uk/wingate.html, with
some interesting comment at www.seaham.org.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=232
. Eye-witness accounts seem to vary
slightly, and doubts have been cast upon the pilot’s alleged attempts to steer
the plane to a ‘safe’ crash.
An interesting
piece of recent history.
Having spoke about the crash only the other night to a work colleage whos farther lives in Wingate,she will be asking her farther if he can recall the Vulcan coming down. My self and a couple of school mates were walking across the farmers fields before the Oakerside estate was built when we first heard the noise of the Vulcan.As it flew directly overhead we looked up to see the Vulcan wing on fire From the highest point we watched the plane going out to sea and the over the Horden viaduct, the Vulcan banked and came back in passing over the Castle Eden Golf course and then the huge impact as it came down in the farmers field. The plane glided but did not appear to spiral with the wing on fire. We could not believe what we had seen, I will never forget that moment, we should have been at school but Castle Eden Dene was a much better place to be.
ReplyDeleteHope my mates read this Phil and Graham
Thanks, Anonymous, for this brilliant eye-witness account. Must have been quite dramatic!
DeleteAt the time there was a lot going on seeing the Vulcan on fire, the parachutes and then the plane coming back in. It was the huge impact when the plane hit the ground and then there was silence. From the field we could see the old brewery as the Vulcan came down in the field. To be honest we where shocked I remember watching the news reports on the North East news. The three of us will never forget this.
DeleteI was an apprentice at murton northern bus depot at the time and was steam cleaning the underside of a bus on the outside lift when i came out from underneath took of my mask and looked up i saw the plane on fire and men bailing out! Iran into the workshop to tell workmates they didnt believe me till we all went out to the sight of a big pluume of smoke rising into the air.i was saventeen at the time
ReplyDeleteAnother great eye-witness account - thanks Anonymous.
DeleteNot sure the plane could have taken the route described as it definitely flew over Shotton Colliery (which is where both the pilot and co pilot landed in their parachutes) before travelling south into Wingate.
ReplyDeleteI was also a bit shocked to see the pilot got a bravery award. Given he landed in Shotton Colliery he had clearly bailed out well before the plane hit the ground, and it seemed more luck than anything else that it didn't hit buildings.
Thanks Anonymous. Don't understand the bravery award either!
DeleteHi Mick
DeleteJust reading your post i also sore the plan on fire and watched it crash into a field just a few hundred yard from a school i was in the junior school playing in the yard it just missed the chimney stack from the boiler house there was a long silence after impact then we could here the screams of parents running to the schools as they thought it crashed into the infant school a day i will never forget
Graeme L
Try reading the officail report, http://www.neam.co.uk/wingate.html. the Pilot stayed in the aircraft to steer it away from any dager on the ground. he did not bail out until he was over the coast. The problem was the aircraft had other ideas and turned back. The pilot devers a medal, he did everything he could to ensure safety.
DeleteTotally wrong. I stood in the playgroung of Wingate Secondary Modern ataring at it. The pilot ejected well before the plane reached the coast and it certainly didnt turh back. It plummeted towards the school, veered sharply right then into the ground. The pilot later visited our school and described how he aimed the Vulcan towards the coast, bailed out and prayed it would miss the school when he saw it dive
Deletei remember playing in Howlitch lane junior school Peterlee when we saw the plane above towards Shotton . Smoke and fire was coming from it as it was decending and i though papers were drifting down but i may be wrong. It was a shock at the time to learn that it had crashed only miles away and that the pilots had jumped so early.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Anonymous, for another interesting eye-witness account.
DeleteI remember standing in Belmont Jnr School playground and watching the bomber flying over with its wing on fire and then watching the crews parachutes opening.
ReplyDeleteI also remember the news broadcasts a few days later asking the souviner hunters to take the bits of bomber back for the investigation!
Thanks Barney. Can't imagine for one minute that any bits were returned to the authorities!
DeleteHi Barney, I also remember seeing it from Belmont junior school playground. I wasn't quite 8 at the time.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Geoff. Well, lots of people seem to know about it now!
DeleteI saw it go over Bowburn Junior school heading in the direction of Thornley over Quarrington Hill. Never forget that sight
ReplyDeleteThanks unknown.
DeleteI was in the junior school the day the vulcan bomber crashed the techer Mr Josh tried to make us crouch behind a wall 2 seconds latter a plum of smoke rose from glasses farm when I looked to the sky a parachute was dropping to words peterlee area and a large plume of smoke to the south seemed to rise into the sky
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, James.
DeleteWas at school at Peterlee Grammar when the burning Vulcan flew over. We were in a class when someone looked out of the window and said that a burning plane had flown overhead. We all stood (including the teacher) and went to the windows and saw this massive black triangle billowing smoke as it headed to Shotton Colliery. Then, excitement over, back to work....but we all watched the news THAT night.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Anonymous.
DeleteA relative of mine witnesed the event and claims that at no point was the craft pointed towards the sea, the crew and captain had simply bailed out without consideration for the safety of anyone on land.
ReplyDeleteMany children were almost killed in this incident, the captain clearly had no capacity to handle a crisis situation, all was required was to point the Plane out towards sea. What is worse is that the captain was too cowardly to land it safely.
The establishment has clearly put its own spin on it and makes the captain a hero, what a joke....please wake up people!
Thanks, Anonymous. Another very interesting take on this dramatic incident.
Deletewith the wing on fire and control surfaces destroyed, it had to come down. Obviously you know nothing about planes other that they have wings, and are used to go on holiday.
DeleteThe plane was on fire the 2 crew ejected a second or so before the plane leaned to its port side showing the full size of the Delta wing this was when it went off its straight line course and plunged towards the ground there was a low level howl from wind pushing through the dead engines. Witnessed from the now wellfield comprehensive school yard looking at it at then it turned passing the junior school then the infant school the crash was felt through the soles of our running feet before the slight silence then the big mushroom cloud. No he shouldn't have been awarded, he was reckless the plane should have been taken a mile to the east and flown over the sea then ditched.
DeleteSo many armchair pilots are quick to judge what the pilot did or didn't do. With no experience of what an aircraft may or may not do when it it abandoned, you're quick to blame it on pilot cowardice. With a fire in the wing, control surfaces become unstable and fail.
DeleteI lived at Station Town when this happened and our house was one of the last the plane flew over before it crashed.I was at A.J Dawson grammar school at the time and my class were having quite time in the library so when the noise of the engines started growing louder and louder we all started looking at each other in silence. It didn't sound good! then there was an almighty thud and everyone just sat there motionless and you could here a pin drop!The shock of realising that a plane had just crashed was too much for everyone to process instantly -so I'll never forget that shared experience of being 'frozen in time'for just an moment while we were all allowing our brains to catch up with the reality of what was happening! When I got home after school my mother who had been home all day said she was forwarned that something dreadful was going to happen because our dog Sheba had been running around the house howling and hiding under the table for half an hour beforehand. When the plane did finally fly over the house it was so near the roof that it cast a shadow over the whole kitchen and my mother was plunged into total blackness and convinced her end had come. After the plane had passed she found herself hiding under the table with the dog. As for the pilots it's difficult to know what they did,I suppose any machine which is malfunctioning and on fire may not stick to any flight path the pilot programmed it to do.
ReplyDeleteThanks Viv. Spooky...
DeleteThe plane crashed half a mile from the aforementioned school. 50 yards from terraced houses
ReplyDeleteThanks Jv66.
DeleteI remember the Vulcan crash pretty well, as I was a pupil in Wellfield Grammar that day. We were in a classroom on the south side of the school having a Tech Drawing lesson, when the sound of the Vulcan, approaching from the north, was heard. Low flying aircraft were pretty common at that time, on most days a pair of USAF RF4Cs would fly over at around 500 feet on training missions. This day the noise became loader than the usual Phantoms, in fact it grew to ear splitting roar. At this point we rushed out of the building just in time to see the Vulcan pass directly over our heads at less than 50 feet. I've read people say the bomb doors were open - can't remember that, I was more concerned with the flames that enveloped the tail! We watched it pass over the houses in the adjacent street and it disappeared from view. At this point it was flying south, parallel to Wingate's North Road, about 50 yards to the east. As we waited for the inevitable crash, the aircraft suddenly reared up, back into our view, in a near vertical climb. It then stalled and fell to the left, diving into the ground with a huge explosion, the fireball rising high into the sky.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking to other pupils and teachers, they saw the aircraft approaching the school from the north and it looked to be heading directly for the school. Harry Lamb, our great PE teacher, was teaching the 3rd year rugby in the field in front of the school and shouted them (in no uncertain terms) to "RUN" down the field to the east away from the school. My mother saw the burning aircraft from Shotton Village and presumed we were back at war!
After the crash, the USAF Phantoms appeared for a flyover - possibly under instruction to recce the site? Then all sort of sundry ambulances, fire engines and police vehicles started arriving, plus an American jeep for some reason.
Seriously, I do believe that it was a miracle that it didn't kill me and a few hundred other schoolkids, or other citizens of Wingate. Its track between me and the crash site was directly over hundreds of houses, Wingate Secondary Modern and Wingate Junior school. It found one of the few safe places to come down within the borders of Wingate and Station Town. I have read the official account where the pilot, apparently, pointed the aircraft at the sea over Easington then ejected. How did it manage to navigate its way into a course, directly north to south, over Wingate? It was flying straight and level when it passed over me, certainly not "spiralling down". The pilot was rewarded with a medal for his actions,- would he have still got it if he had flattened Wellfield Grammar School?
Some great detail! Thanks Anonymous.
DeleteI'm researching this with a view to filming a piece about it. Can anyone single out the exact location the Vuclan crashed. Looking at these accounts I'm not sure which school it came down near. Thanks Chris.
DeleteI was working at a Building Company in Hetton- Le-Hole : we had offices on both side of the road and as I was crossing I heard the planes engines. Smoke and then flames came from one wing, port wing I think. The plane was flying very slowly; then more flame appeared suddenly behind the wing and spread to the fuselage. Parachutes started to appear at intervals. We then lost sight of the aircraft because of the buildings. I didn’t hear the impact, but it was quite some distance away in Wingate. However a family member worked for DLI (Durham Light Industries) in Wingate and he, that evening, gave us a vivid account of the aircraft passing low over the factory yard where they were welding, crashing into the field at the back of the factory. One guy who had been in the war apparently threw himself onto the ground in panic. The aircraft was so seriously damaged when I saw it that, personally, I cannot rush to judgement about the degree to which the Pilot was able to control the aircraft at that point and afterwards. To do so would be pure speculation.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your input, Chris. Very interesting!
DeleteI was 8 in 1971, and my sister was 3. We lived in Lake View, almost exactly on the border between Wingate and Station Town. On the day the Vulcan crashed I wasn't at school for some reason, and my sister was too young to have started. I remember we were in the house, and Dad was blowing bubbles for us to burst. There was the noise of a plane going over and Dad said something along the lines of 'that doesn't sound very healthy. Next thing there was a huge bang and the house seemed to jump in the air. Our first thought wasn't 'oh there's another nuclear capable bomber crashing' so we just kept on playing.
ReplyDeleteLater on we went out to the shops and the whole bottom end of the village was just jammed with RAF, police and fire vehicles. We had to ask what had happened, because then there was no instant news or internet.
Bear in mind that our terrace is on one side of the main road though the village, then on the other side of the main road is Station Lane and behind that is the field where the plane crashed. I think the field was/is known as the Store Field because it was behind the Co-Op at the top of Station Lane.
I've had a quick look on Google Maps and I reckon it's within 200 metres from where we were sitting to the crash site. How we managed to miss the fact that there'd been a plane crash that close is something of a mystery. We used to play over there, on the old railway lines and the unused station buildings, and for weeks and months we'd find small parts of the plane, parts of its skin usually. From what we could see the hole it left was really deep, as you'd expect.
I also remember the story that the pilot had tried to point it out over the sea but had then had to bail out. I think it's only good luck that it missed everything on the ground because it could easily have take out two terraces of houses if it had crashed just a hundred metres away from from where it did.
Mustn't have been our turn to go that day.
Amazing! Thanks for your input Paul.
DeleteI was 5 years old at the time I have read the report and some discrepancies I was sat in my parents car at the brus shops st west view hartlepool people were coming out of the shops and looking up at the sky over towards the sea .I can remember a fire ball travelling very slow heading north my father got in the car and we drove up the cost road towards crimdon seen we were opposite the sea gull bub when I saw to flashes leave the aircraft which my dad said were pilots bailing out my father stopped the car and said we could not go any further as the aircraft was heading out to sea I heard later that it turned back towards land and crashed at Wingate.
ReplyDeletePerhaps gallantry medal awarded as only the pilot and co-pilot had ejector seats in a Vulcan. He chose to remain with aircraft while his crew manually ejected. Pilot tried but avionics would be shot so more luck, thank God, that no-one was killed. At the infamous Vulcan Heathrow crash; the senior officers bailed and left 4 crew to die.
ReplyDeleteI witnessed this first-hand, along with all of my classmates at Easington Colliery Junior School. I was 11 years old. We were all lined up outside of the classroom about to go in, when suddenly the Vulcan appeared more or less directly overhead and very low in the sky, clearly on fire! What remains with me to this day is the aircraft was flying beautifully...on a very straight course ...and no spiralling out of control. But one wing was clearly on fire. So I can only speculate at this point in the proceedings the pilot was still in the cockpit and doing his level best to aim the doomed aircraft away from residential areas before bailing out. The next day my grandad drove me to the crash site. We were all amazed no-one was killed! I live in Australia now. My father, Glynne Parry, worked at Dewhurst clothing factory in Peterlee. They made great shirts there and he was much-loved as a kind and happy supervisor. Before that he worked at Tudor Crisps in Peterlee. My grandparents ran pubs in the area: Hesleden and Shotton Colliery. They were Fred and Marjorie Hall. My mother is Josie Parry (nee Hall). My parents were married at the Ship Inn, which is somewhere in that part of the world near Hesleden I think. All I remember about being a boy in Easington Village was the lovely church, the village green, and lots of fields. Oh, and one winter it snowed so hard people had to dig their way out of their houses.
ReplyDeleteI witnessed this accident, and remember it vividly. I was an eight year old school boy at Houghton junior school, long since demolished. I remember being in the playground during morning break. I heard the sound of the aircraft as it passed overhead. I had no interest in aircraft at that time but the sound drew my attention. I noticed the huge triangular shape of the plane and a sudden burst of orange flame, that if memory is correct began in the rear left wing, and progressed outward toward the wing tip as it passed overhead. When we returned to class, our teacher informed us that the plane had crashed in Wingate. At that time Houghton was also part of County Durham. I'm sure the teacher was called Mr Andrews. I've often thought about this incident. Later that same year I travelled to California and from that, grew an interest in aviation which remains to this day. I've always admired the Vulcan, I tried tonight to find a record on YouTube, without success. Having discovered this page, It's been fascinating to read the other eye witness reports of an incident that occurred so long ago, but still made a long lasting and vivid impression upon all the local people who saw it, and thankfully were not harmed.
ReplyDeleteI was on the front of school playing field of the A.J. Dawson Grammar school at the time of the incident. We were having a rugby practice with the PE teacher Harry Lamb, we were messing about, and then someone said ‘Look Sir, an airoplane’s on fire !’
ReplyDelete‘Don’t be stupid’ said Harry, then we all looked up and saw the bomber heading towards us from the direction of Shotton Colliery. It was most definitely seriously on fire, then it turned slightly to the East and two airmen ejected and their parachutes opened. The bomber then nose dived but straightened out again, it looked like it would crash onto us. I just remember watching it come down overhead with a frightening roar, then it levelled out a little and passed over me and dived down over Wingate. A few seconds later there was a very loud explosion then a mushroom cloud of smoke came up.
Some of the lads wanted to rush to where they thought the parachutists had landed, Harry told them not to as they were probably miles away in Shotton!. On the lower school field a rectangular metal framework probably from an ejector seat had crashed. We all went and examined that !
The bomber passed right over the Grammar school, the Secondary Modern school, the Junior school and the Infants school before crashing into farmer John Glass’s field behind the Co-op. - 50 yards from the Front Street of Wingate! It could very nearly have been a major disaster.
Farmer John Glass was my uncle, and my Dad had his touring caravan sited adjacent to the crash site – just other to side of the old railway line - so that evening we were given access to the site to check the caravan in case it was damaged. I remember a smoking crater with debris everywhere, lots of Police and Military people about . Of the Vulcan bomber there was nothing at all recognisable, just bits of metal and mangled wreckage everywhere.
The caravan was undamaged. We recovered a few bits if aluminium which were later used to patch rusty wings of Ford Escorts and Cortinas.
There was a lot of speculation afterwards as to whether the Vulcan was carrying nuclear weapons.
I believe one of the bombers engines was buried so deep that it was not recovered.
Post script. My mother lives in a bungalow at the top of the bank exactly where the Vulcan crashed.
The bottom of her garden is the crash impact point!
The engine was recovered when the drain was repaird forty five feet deep with was broken by the impact i was in the field when it landed beside two horses belonging to bury bruce
ReplyDeleteThe date is incorrect. It was 8th January. The pilots did not land in a quarry, the aircraft was not armed either with conventional or nuclear weapons and the bomb doors were not open. The crew did not bale out one by one. The captain elected to get the three rear crew out together before the pilots baled out since they did not have ejector seats. He then, having realised that it would be impossible to land the aircraft,steered it out to sea. The aircraft was now impossible to control and the captain ordered the co-pilot to eject. He followed a few seconds later. Unfortunately the aircraft turned on its back and crashed near the school. Happily without loss of life. As for the merits of a bravery award for the captain, I imagine that those who feel qualified to comment have not spent twenty minutes trying to control a burning aircraft. Incidentally as the co-pilot on the day I take exception to the use of the word panic. The panic response would have been to eject as soon as the first engine disintegrated not to have gone through the drills to attempt to save the aircraft and lives.
ReplyDeleteI'm researching the site as part of research into a film as part of a Web tv series on metal detecting. I'd be very grateful to correspond with you.
DeleteMy parents lives in Acclom Street, Station Town at the time. My mother was heavily pregnant with me and had just returned from a hospital appiontment. The shock of the crash started my mothers labour off. That was 8th January 1971 and I was born the next day, 9th January 1971. I bas nicknamed the Bomber Baby.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone show me the exact location of the crash ? Is it still acessible ?
ReplyDeleteI was working on the new Castle Eden Bypass that day. I saw the plane coming from the north and realized it was on fire. My first thought was " is there a bomb on board " if so no point in jumping into the trench nearby! The plane flew in a straight line getting lower when bits fell off and the last two crew bailed out. It then turned slightly away from me and crashed a few hundred yards away.
ReplyDeleteI was at Our Lady of the Rosary junior school. The Vulcan bomber was low in the sky, possibly about five hundred to one thousand feet.
ReplyDeleteThe Vulcan looked to be coming from the North, turning Eastward.
I think the pilot had just bailed out; I want to remember seeing a parachute, but that part seems a little blurry in my mind, and maybe I’m wrong, I always thought the pilot landed in or around the West of Peterlee, or Shotton Colliery when he was sure in his mind the plane was heading for the sea, at that point only about two miles away.
On a road map the plane was approximately following the B1320 off the A19.
The Vulcan was flying over towards where the grammar school used to be, heading east towards the sea.
We could see the plane was on fire, a dramatic sight for all of us who were outside watching instead of doing P. E.
While we watched, the Vulcan began to curve away from the east trajectory and turn back inland, passing over our junior school, heading on more of a Southwest trajectory towards Shotton Hall school.
On a road map the Vulcan basically was heading down Burnhope Way in Peterlee from the A19 then turned back up Passfield Way, back towards the A19.
We lost sight of the Vulcan; We could see the plane losing altitude. Later learning that as the plane had continued to lose height, it drifted back across the A19, clearing Wellfield school at Wingate then crashing into the fields behind the houses and to the West of the A19, approx. three to four miles away.