215afs Meteor Crash 1952

[jerry.ice]

Whilst doing some research into my fathers RAF National Service I came across this web site which gives graphic account of pilot training in 1952.

 

http://homepages.force9.net/tuxford/meteor/account_files/reduced.htm

 

The reason for my interest in this event is that on 27th March 1952 my father crashed his Meteor IV short of the runway at RAF Blyton, Lincs. He was based at RAF Finningley with 215 AFS. His plane was completly written off and he luckily walked away unhert.

He never really spoke of this event or much of his service time, we just gleaned small peices of info as and when they came out.

 

After joining the ATC in 1948 and qualifying as a glider pilot in 1950, his time for National Service came around and he joined the RAF. He was part of No 5 NSA Pilots Course which assembled at No1 FTS Oakington on the 29th August 1951. The course was composed of National Service men who volunteered for aircrew training and consisted of 48 pupils. After moving to Moreton in Marsh in Oct 1951 42 of the original 48 completed the course of 120 hours and obtained a white card insrument rating.

This course was considered an experiment to see if National Service men could be trained for pilot duties during their two years in order to build up a reserve of efficient aircrew. During this time he flew Tiger Moth, Chipmunk and Harvard`s.

Feb 1952 he moved to 215 AFS at Finningley. Here he flew Meteor F4 and T7 however his conversion to multi engined aircraft was in a Wellington T11. During asymmetric flying practice, which involved cutting one engine, he misjudged the wind speed and crashed 400 yds short of the runway at RAF Blyton. Blyton was used for touch and go landing training in order to keep the circuit at Finningley.

My first thoughts were this would be a rare occurance however over 890 Meteors crashed when in service killing 434 pilots and 10 navigators! 1952 also has the dubious honour of being the worst year for losses in peace time. In todays terms these losses would lead to huge enquiries however it must be put into the context of 7 years before 400+ men could be lost in a night during bombing raids. I also found that approx 25 miles away on the same day a Canberra B2 of 617 Squadron crashed near RAF Binbrook, sadly killing all three crew, a mosquito from Aston Down crashed into the river Usk, and two Tiger Moths crashed at Digby.

 

This event had a huge effect on my life despite being 16 years before my birth.

It was suggested my father finish his Natonal Service learning to type in Norfolk. He finished his National Service having been promoted to Flying Officer RAF VR No 64 Group Reserve Centre. He then worked for the rest of his career for Woolworths, meeting my mother and so on.

He could quite easily have been killed that day or conversly if he had not crashed he may have joined up for a career in the RAF.

 

This rambeling tale just goes to show how fate really does guide your destiny and how different things may have been but for the events of March 27, 1952.:writing:

 

Jerry

[berna2vm]

Absolutely,Jerry it is strange how events in people's lives can alter the course of their destiny so greatly...

I reckon the crash was a good thing, because if it had not happened,you would almost certainly not be on this forum :-).

It reminds me of a nice old chap who was the caretaker at my daughter's dancing school.

He became engaged to his sweetheart two days before leaving for the far east, a tank mechanic no less.He worked in horrible conditions on Grant tanks with aero engines and later on Sherman tanks with Detroit diesel engines. In the heat of one particular battle his entire company was reported as missing, presumed dead. Due to communications problems their safe recovery ( after 6 months! ), was not relayed back to Britain and none of his letters reached their destination...

Upon return home 3 years later he was sickened to find that his fiancee was married with a child. She was very much in love with her husband and very shocked to see a ghost... everyone thought he was dead!

He met a wonderful lady, fell in love and married. Sadly they could not start a family as she turned out to be infertile.

He told me with tears in his eyes that he loved his wife more than anything but he often lamented losing his fiancee and the chance of a child.

War is cruel in all ways...

This man was in his eighties and still cries.

[berna2vm]

Actually, I have welled up writing this....Must be getting soft in my old age!

[jerry.ice]

Twists of fate can be as cruel as kind!

 

Jerry

[Richard Farrant]

I remember a Meteor crashing on a small town nearby in 1956. The pilot, navigator and two people on the ground were killed, the plane was a long way off its planned flying area, in fact over the pilots home, when he lost control. The memory is quite clear for me, because it was a Friday and we always went shopping at the International Stores on Saturdays. The shop was at the centre of the crash, my recollections, even at the age of five was all the devastation and firemen still in attendance.

[jerry.ice]

Apparently on one day in September 1952 in unrelated incidents four meteors all crashed. These details never seem to appear in the history of the meteor, and I do wonder if the pilots of the time were aware of these issues and how widely reported they were. I have copies of three newspaper articles of my fathers crash, two local papers and one mention in a national paper that mainly focussed on the loss of the Canberra as a couple of days prior another Canberra was lost when leaving the Salmsbury factory.

 

Jerry

[antarmike]

Wiki has no entry for any Meteor crashes during this period!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_military_aircraft,_1950-1974

[Yorkie370]

Sadly, as we all know Wiki is hardly the most accurate tool on the 'net. A quick Google including the words "raf, aircraft, & losses" will help. There was a thread a while back on Pprune which highlighted the enormous number of aircraft lost in the 1950s.

[gritineye]

A Meteor crashed a few miles from where I lived as a kid, (Selmeston, E. Sx) I remember climbing to the top of a tree to see if I could see anything across the fields, I couldn't.

[Richard Farrant]

A Meteor crashed a few miles from where I lived as a kid, (Selmeston, E. Sx) I remember climbing to the top of a tree to see if I could see anything across the fields, I couldn't.

 

Bernard,

 

The Meteor crash I refered to earlier, was in Wadhurst High Street, I saw the aftermath following day.

[gritineye]

I thought it might have been that one Richard, I have been Googling away without success trying to find a reference to the crash near me, it crashed at Berwick Station, I remember hearing that one of the crew was seen to bail out over the sea and a big search was only called off after it was discovered his chute had caught on the tailplane and appallingly he went down with the plane.

 

I also remember looking down on a Meteor flying along the short railway cutting to the west of Berwick station, I was impressed that I could see the pilot's face! He must have been only a few feet above the lines.

[Richard Farrant]

I also remember looking down on a Meteor flying along the short railway cutting to the west of Berwick station, I was impressed that I could see the pilot's face! He must have been only a few feet above the lines.

 

Bernard,

I lived South of Wadhurst through the 50's and we used to get a lot of Meteors from West Malling, they would be tree top height at times, just as you witnessed....................mind you where I work now, we regularly get Tornados, Hercs and Chinooks doing likewise.

[Richard Farrant]

I thought it might have been that one Richard, I have been Googling away without success trying to find a reference to the crash near me, it crashed at Berwick Station,

 

 

Bernard,

 

Here are the details;

www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php/t=4085

 

Oh, it is not showing up, I found it by Googling "Berwick Selmerston Meteor" and it was top of the page.

[gritineye]

I found it by Googling "Berwick Selmerston Meteor" and it was top of the page.

 

Thanks for that, bonkers isn't it? Miss spell Selmeston and there it is! :-D We pronounced it Salmston...:cool:

[Richard Farrant]

Thanks for that, bonkers isn't it? Miss spell Selmeston and there it is! :-D We pronounced it Salmston...:cool:

 

 

Just read the link refered to, Selmestonblog, it has a detailed account, worth reading.

[gritineye]

Yep, that all seems about right.......... I was only 9.

[jerry.ice]

A great book on the subject is Meteor Eject by Nick Carter, himself a former Meteor pilot.

The other book i found interesting was LAst Take Off- A Record of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950-1953. This lists all aircraft lost and a brief description of each incident, some tragic stories but very interesting all the same.

 

Jerry

[Peter4456]

Years ago I wrote a history of RAF West Malling (By Day and By Night) and was horrified at the amount of crashes in the late 40s and 50s. The Mosquito Night Fighters appeared to be falling to pieces by that time (it was said that Termites in the Far East had feasted on fuselages near the tail wheel!) and fuel problems with the Meteor Night Fighters caused a number of fatalities.

 

Apparently there is a crash site near Coxheath where it was too difficult to recover most of the aircraft and the site was sealed andd left. Another crash site near Pluckley still has pieces of the 500 Sqn Meteor that crashed there.

 

My Dad was at school at Bishops Stortford in 1955 and saw the aftermath of a Canberra crash - you've got me on the hunt for info on that one now!

 

Peter

[jerry.ice]

One of the main problems with both the Meteor and the Canberra was during training they would practice asymetric flying, involving fllying on one engine. With the engines being so far off the centreline the effect on the controls was considerable.

With the Meteor there were occassons when four or five aircraft from a flight would all run out of fuel and either emergency land or crash!

 

When compared to todays standards the loses where horrific, however compared to the war years an improvement. You also forget that at one time the RAF could loose 800+ of one type of aircraft and still be operational.

Have they got 800 aircraft today?

 

Jerry

[sanguin]

Gentlemen,

A link about the Wadhurst Meteor crash that may be of interest:

http://www.encyclopedia.com/video/EqYbfejoMR4-wadhurst-1956-raf-plane-crashes.aspx

They just don't do news stories like that any more.

John

[Richard Farrant]

Gentlemen,

A link about the Wadhurst Meteor crash that may be of interest:

http://www.encyclopedia.com/video/EqYbfejoMR4-wadhurst-1956-raf-plane-crashes.aspx

They just don't do news stories like that any more.

John

 

Hi John,

 

Thanks for that link, as I mentioned in an earlier post, my parents always went into Wadhurst to shop at the International Stores and I can remember going with them on the following day and seeing the devastation. The shop temporarily relocated into a nearby Hall.

 

Richard

[alan turner (RIP)]

As I said in my introduction to the forum I worked at the Royal Artillery Museum IN Woolwich Arsenal when it first opened in May 2001. On one of the opening weekends a colleague approached me to ask if I had ever heard of a plane crashing into the Arenal in 1953 and killing its pilot. Asked her why she wanted to know and she informed me that the pilots son was on site and asking whereabouts the crash happened and what had happened to the memorial stone that the Local Co-op funeral services had erected on the 40th annivesary> turned out no one employed knew and details about it.

 

Anyway it nagged at me being a plane buff of sorts and after 6 months keeping an eye out for information I managed to get the full story.

 

In a rehersal for the battle of Britain flypast in september 1953 Wing Commander Robert Duncan Yule flying out of Horsham st faith(Norwich) in his meteor Mk8 carrying his initials on the side was leading the mass of meteors on the approach path for Buck house, he moved up and over to get a good view of the formation and suddenly found that they were overtaking the lone Hurricane (LF363?) and fast approaching the point of no return at Woolwich and manoeuvered to rejoin the formation. What he wasnt aware of was his no2 was flying below and alongside as any good wingman should in combat, they collided knocking Mr Yules complete tail plane off and shattering the no2's cockpit canopy, giving him concussion.

 

Mr Yules aircraft went into a flat spin and crashed between 2 explosives huts on the arsenal site and burst into flames, Arsenal staff attempted to douse the conflagration and rescue the pilot but to no avail. About 7 awards were given to these chaps at later date. THe no2 made an emergnecy landing at I belive Hornchurch.

 

Mr yule was from New Zealand and had joined up at the beginning of the war with the likes of Al Deere, survived the battle of Britain and other wartime battles and remained in the RAF when peace returned. He was married with 2 small boys at the time of his death, perhaps named Michael and Athony both of whom went on to have flying careers of their own one with the RAF the other BOAC and it was one of these guys who had visitied the museum that opening weekend.

 

The Co-op memorial stone I traced to B40 the Old Oficers mess, where it sat on a window sillm but you can still see the fixing points for it inside the entrance hall before the door to the southern saloon. It then sat for a long period in the Curators office, the presiding directors not wishing to take on any repsonsibilty for it until it was passed to the Greenwich Heritage centre for safe keeping.

 

The original crash photos were taken by the Evening Standard from a hovering helicopter , they were taken to court and and fined £10,000.00 for endangering life by flying too close to HTwires and flying over a restricted area, a lot of money for 1953, it led them to dispose of said helicopter.

 

I think that the reason Firepower didnt want to get too involved was because of the date 11th September 1953 (or in amaerican terms 9/11).

 

there are some details on the old Royal Arsenal Woolwich web site at QQ22.net

[AndyFowler]

Very interesting everyone , Thank you for posting ! :-D

[phil munga]

Not sure if the Meteor was based here , but there is quite a bit of information on this website of the local airbase , think i might have some picture in a family album of some of the bombers and spitfires

 

http://www.wartimememories.co.uk/airfields/midd-st-george.html'>http://www.wartimememories.co.uk/airfields/midd-st-george.html