Crash Jet Kai Tak Nullah

The Vampire crashed on September 6, 1955 after a training flight with a student on board. The plane had come in to land from the south-east via the sea on Runway 31 and overran the extension (see  http://gwulo.com/node/1835) at the end and skidded into the nullah. There was no lost of life. Another photo of the accident.

The area of the crash is today's San Po Kong Nullah. If one looks up on the right side of the photo, one will see a police post and barriers to stop traffic on the old Clearwater Bay Road (today's Choi Hung Road) as seen in this photo .

The same area today http://gwulo.com/node/1831

The nullah is still there and  not filled in as described on the Flickr site.

By email, an interesting explanation for why the Vampire ended up in the nullah:

I refer to your photo of the Venom Vampire from 28 SQDN Based at Sek Kong in the Monsoon ditch alongside Kai Tak Runway at the Lion Rock end of the runway. Was delight to see the photo as I still remember it today. The Venom also looks like it was the Mark T11, TWO SEATER TRAINER.

In 1953 I arrived in Hong Kong 25th Dec on a troopship Empire Clyde. The Shek Kip mei squatter fire was burning as we arrived in the harbour. I was then 9 Years old along with my sister who was about 5. We were joining our father who was a flt Sgt on 28 SQDN at Sek Kong.

Clearwater bay rd ran across the threshold of the runway and barriers would be rolled across whenever there were aircraft movements along with visual warnings.

I and my sister witnessed this accident. We were both on an RAF School bus going to Kai Tak for some reason, it may have been Sunday School at the RAF Church of England there.

We approached the barrier just as the warning signs  alarmed, the driver (Chinese) continued to cross the runway as the barriers had not yet been rolled across. We were the last vehicle to cross before the Barriers were in place.

As we crossed the threshold of the runway the bus conked out or stalled and was stuck in the middle. The barrier at the far end then closed. The driver requested all the kids to get out and push the bus towards the barrier. This we did.

As we were pushing the bus the Venom was then spotted landing at the far end. It proceeded down the runway towards us as we continued to frantically push the bus. The Venom was then seen to veer to his right and cut across the grass. He crossed the road and ended up in the monsoon ditch as shown.

Meanwhile the bus started and we jumped on board and moved off as the barriers were now opened. There was no fire engine or ambulance on scene at this moment in time.

I can remember passing the Venom and looking into the ditch to see the pilot sitting by the cockpit looking pissed off as he watched us go by. I only saw one person on the cockpit at that time. We continued on our journey and nothing was ever said about our incident.

I mentioned this to my parents but they did not realize exactly what happened that day. My Dad, who's plane this was knew of a bus involved but did not realise until later that is was our schoolbus until he heard us talking about the incident. Nothing was mentioned about the bus at the enquiry.

Regards Barry Elliott, Ex married quarter brat Sunderland Rd MQ