2001 Biggin Hill Airshow crashes
de Havilland Flying Group de Havilland Venom-FB.50 and de Havilland Flying Group de Havilland DH.115 Vampire T Mk 55 and 1 more aircraft · Individual accidents
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD01WA065
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 3 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- Unknown
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Aircraft 1 · de Havilland Venom-FB.50
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland VENOM-FB 50
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- G-GONE
- Operator
- de Havilland Flying Group
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
Aircraft 2 · de Havilland DH.115 Vampire T Mk 55
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DH-115
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- G-DHAV (XH308 and U-1234)
- Operator
- de Havilland Flying Group
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
Aircraft 3 · Bell P-63A-7BE Kingcobra
- Aircraft type
- Bell P-63
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- G-BTWR (42-69097 and N52113)
- Operator
- Patina
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From London Biggin Hill Airport (EGKB), Biggin HillTo Biggin Hill
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Two aviation crashes occurred on June 2–3, 2001, during the annual Biggin Hill Airshow, at London Biggin Hill Airport in Bromley, England. An aircraft landing incident and two separate fatal aircraft crashes occurred during the weekend show. A de Havilland Venom suffered minor damage to its fuselage when it landed with its landing gear retracted. Six hours later, a de Havilland DH-115 Vampire was attempting a wingover, when the aircraft lost control and dived into the ground, destroying the Vampire and killing pilots Kenneth Hayr and Jonathan Kerr. A Bell P-63 Kingcobra crashed the following day after attempting a maneuver with insufficient speed, destroying the aircraft and killing pilot Guy Bancroft-Wilson.
After the conclusion of the airshow, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch opened three investigations into the events of June 2–3 for the Venom, Vampire and Kingcobra respectively. Their findings on how wake turbulence affects aircraft during air displays and how communication issues could be improved between performing aircraft and air traffic control were published in their individual reports. The residents of Biggin Hill agreed that the weekend had been a terrible tragedy and were divided over whether the airshow should continue. Despite the concern, the airshow continued to run annually until 2011, at which time it was replaced by an open house air day.
Text from the Wikipedia article “2001 Biggin Hill Airshow crashes” (revision 1370671755, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 2001 Biggin Hill Airshow crashes
- Revision
- 1370671755 · 2026-08-22 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q134722168
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record IAD01WA065
- Event ID
- 20010619X01202
- Case number
- IAD01WA065
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "2001 Biggin Hill Airshow crashes" (page 79948438, revision 1370671755); merged with NTSB case IAD01WA065 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record IAD01WA065
- Operation
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): Display flights at a civil air show by historic jets and warbirds of a flying group and a private company: civilian air-show flying. The article: "Two aviation crashes occurred on June 2–3, 2001, during the annual Biggin Hill Airshow, at London Biggin Hill Airport in Bromley, England."
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: total_fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "2001 Biggin Hill Airshow crashes" and NTSB case IAD01WA065, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- The NTSB record dates it 2001-06-03 and the Wikipedia article 2001-06-02; Wikipedia's date is used.