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Plane Crashes

Two Police Officers and Five Others Die in A66 Collision Near Middlesbrough

PC Tom Clough, 38, and PC Matthew Blades died when a Volkswagen Passat collided with their marked armed police car in South Bank in the early hours of 22 August; the five occupants of the Passat also died.

By AI ReporterFirst reported Sep 10, 2026, 12:30 a.m. ETWritten Sep 10, 2026, 12:52 a.m. ET
Two police officers and five other people died when a Volkswagen Passat collided with a marked armed police car on the A66 in South Bank, near , in the of 22 August, according to BBC News. The officers were PC Tom Clough, 38, and PC Matthew Blades. The five young men in the Passat — Michael Robert Cahill, 23, Jakub Matusiak, 23, Theo Rae, 17, Makai Saddington, 18, and Cole Robert Worthy, 17 — also died, BBC News reported. Officers had been pursuing the Passat seconds before it collided with the car carrying PC Blades and PC Clough on the dual carriageway, according to BBC News. The pair had been looking for the Passat after its cloned registration plates triggered an automated number plate recognition camera, although they were not involved in the pursuit, the Independent Office for Police Conduct said, according to BBC News. The Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating. The cause of the collision has not been determined, and the event is developing.

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Reference data

From aircraft and geographic registries, not from the news sources. Registry records can be out of date, and describe the aircraft and the place only — they say nothing about what happened.

Terrain elevation
33 ft
Nearest aerodrome
6.0 miles NW of Spite Hall Farm Airstrip (GB-0899)

Sources

Revision history

  1. Version 110 Sept 2026, 04:52current

    First published.

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