On 6 September 1952, a prototype de Havilland DH.110 jet fighter crashed during an aerial display at the Farnborough Airshow in Hampshire, England.

The jet disintegrated mid-air during an aerobatic manoeuvre, causing the death of pilot John Derry and onboard flight test observer Anthony Richards.

Stricter safety procedures were subsequently enacted for UK air shows and there were no further spectator fatalities until the 2015 Shoreham Airshow crash in which 11 people died.

[5] After demobilisation, he became an experimental test pilot,[5] winning the Segrave Trophy in 1948 for "breaking the 100 km closed circuit aeroplane record at Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

Having worked for de Havilland as an apprentice, he had become a member of the flight-test section in December 1948, and in April 1952 had become the first British flight test observer to exceed the speed of sound, with Derry piloting.

[5] Derry and Richards then collected WG 236, the first DH.110 prototype, from de Havilland's factory in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, and flew it to Farnborough, starting their display at around 3:45 p.m.[5] Following a supersonic dive and flypast from 40,000 feet (12,000 m) and during a left bank at about 450 knots (830 km/h; 520 mph) toward the air show's 120,000 spectators, the pilot pulled up into a climb.

You could hear some people sort of whimpering which was quite shocking.Sixty-three years later, speaking on the BBC Today radio programme in the wake of the 2015 Shoreham Airshow crash, author Moyra Bremner recalled her own traumatic experience.

[9] Following the accident the air display programme continued once the debris was cleared from the runway, with Neville Duke exhibiting the prototype Hawker Hunter and taking it supersonic over the show later that day.

[13] Group Captain Sidney Weetman Rochford Hughes, the commandant of the Experimental Flying Department, gave expert testimony, saying, "From previous experience of Mr Derry's flying demonstrations here on the four days of the display, from the messages received from him on the radio-telephone, and from investigation of the wreckage, I am convinced that the pilot had no warning whatsoever of the impending failure of his aircraft.