East Fortune - Leuchars

On May 26, 1961 at 12:00 AM, East Fortune - Leuchars experienced a crash involving Percival P.66 Pembroke, operated by Royal Air Force - RAF, with the event recorded near East Fortune AFB East Lothian (Haddingtonshire).

The flight was categorized as military and the reported phase was takeoff (climb) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

2 people were known to be on board, 0 fatalities were recorded, 2 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 0.0%.

Crew on board: 2, crew fatalities: 0, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is technical failure. The Pembroke took off from East Fortune to proceed to RAF Leuchars on 26th of May 1961 after flying from a NATO meeting in Paris with Air Vice Marshall R.B. Thompson and Air Vice Marshall R.H. Wright both men had just been set down at East Fortune. Soon after take off at around 2,000 feet that problem started, with North Berwick in view, only a short distance from the airfield, the port engine caught fire and blew up. The pilot, Flt Lt Munn, look out of the cockpit and found that the engine cowling and parts of the engine were missing and the engine was still burning. The pilot decided to crash land as soon as possible and with that he turned the aircraft hard to port to avoid crossing the coast and getting into even more danger. While doing this he closed both throttles (closing the starboard throttle by mistake) and started a rapid descent. The aircraft crash landed in a corn field close to Newhouse farm (near North Berwick) and only minor injuries were received by the pilot and copilot. Five minutes after leaving the aircraft the port inboard fuel tank exploded and the entire fuselage was gutted. Source: https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=145236

Aircraft reference details include registration WV737, MSN 37, year of manufacture 1956.