Sea Vixen crash site, Flat Tor Pan

On 31 May 1965 a Royal Navy de Havilland Sea Vixen fighter went into a spin at 28,000 ft during a fighter tactics sortie and crashed on the high moor at Flat Tor Pan, about four miles north of Two Bridges. Both crew ejected and survived. The aircraft was written off.

• Aircraft: de Havilland Sea Vixen FAW.1 XN648 (VL-716)
• Unit: 766 Naval Air Squadron, Fleet Air Arm, from RNAS Yeovilton
• Date: 31 May 1965
• Crew: Two, both ejected safely
• Grid reference: SX 61274 81287 (the Devon HER point, MDV105346, is 30 m away)

What you can see

The impact crater is now a pond roughly 50 m across on the north side of the Dartmoor Mires restoration area, where the peat is being re-wetted. The military removed most of the large parts, including the fuselage. Small pieces of twisted metal lay around the site into the 21st century and a large piece lies beside the pond. The site was recorded in a 2011 walkover and a 2014 watching brief (Bournemouth University, 2015).

Access

Open moor. No lives were lost, so it is not a grave, but the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 still applies: do not dig or take anything. The fenced Mires project areas are the easiest landmarks for finding it.

Dates and names

The Devon HER and the National Park report give 776 Squadron; every other source says 766. One website gives 1961, which looks like a typo. The earlier text of this listing gave 1962 and called the aircraft supersonic: the Sea Vixen was a subsonic naval fighter, and 1965 is the date in the aviation database, the HER and Dartmoor Explorations.