The pilot in question on this fateful flight was South African, Flying Officer Jocelyn Davis. Mr Davis was carrying out an engineering apprenticeship at the huge MetroVics factory in Trafford Park, Manchester. He was due to return home to South Africa in September 1951 after spending three years in England. Jocelyn was also a member of the City of Johannesburg Squadron of the South African Auxiliary Air Force from where he was seconded to No 613 Squadron.
The full circumstances and cause of the crash of Vampire FB.5, VV602 were never fully ascertained. The aircraft itself being five years old, with around 490 hours of flying time being built up on it.
Flying Officer Davis in VV602 and his 613 Squadron colleague, Flying Officer Parker in another Vampire were tasked with carrying out a cine gun exercise at an altitude of around 25,000ft over the North Sea. The weather was mixed, the cloud base being 2,000ft with the potential for occasional thunder storms forecast. Flying Officer Parker was acting as flight leader for the exercise.
The thundery showers ultimately delayed the pair’s take-off until 12.45. An hour and a quarter later than planned, finally rolling down Ringway’s Runway 24 at 12.46, they took off together. Turning onto a 120° heading they climbed out of Ringway hitting cloud at 2,000ft as predicted. They could easily maintain their formation visually in the light, layered cloud.
The cloud started to get thicker and darker with heavy rain making it difficult to for the two aircraft to maintain visual contact. It is assumed that Flying Officer Davis lost sight of his colleague as at 6,000ft he broke formation and radioed his leader to tell him, stating that he was turning onto a heading of 140°. Immediately after this, Davis radioed again, saying that he was bailing out. Later analysis of the voice recording showed that there was no panic however they could detect clear agitation in his voice.
At the time, Flying Officer Davis was over the aircraft graveyard that is Wildboarclough, near to the Cheshire/Staffordshire/Derbyshire border. After exiting the cloud, Davis’ Vampire was seen by witnesses to dive straight into the ground on the northern end of Wildboardclough. A parachute was seen to leave the aircraft just prior to it exploding on impact with the moor, this was found 200yds from the crash. Unfortunately when rescuers arrived, Flying Officer Davis was found to be already dead, his parachute badly damaged. Local Police reported the crash to Ringway.
In the mean time, Flight Officer Parker in the lead aircraft had managed to keep climbing, exiting the cloud at 13,500ft. In clear air he attempted to contact his colleague by radioing him, no reply was forthcoming. His next action was to radio the north west Air Traffic Control Centre in Preston to report the loss of his colleague.
After a service at St Winifreds in Heaton Chapel, Flying Officer Jocelyn Davis was buried in Manchester’s Southern Cemetry on the 7th May, 1945, a week after the crash. The investigation that followed didn’t find a reason as to why Davis bailed out in the first place, however it did conclude that his parachute had opened while he was still in the aircraft trapping him in there for too long before eventually pulling him free. He was then struck by part of the Vampire itself killing him instantly. The Court of Enquiry did state that his parachute had been so badly damaged that he was unlikely to have survived even if he hadn’t been hit by his own aircraft.
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