Date:	Monday 5 May 1952
Time:	day
Type:	Gloster Meteor F Mk 8
Owner/operator:	64 Sqn RAF
Registration:	WE929
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Piccards Rough, Sandy Lane, St Catherines, near Guildford, Surrey -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Duxford, Cambridgeshire
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor F.Mk.8 WE929: Delivered to the RAF at 29 MU High Ercall 18.4.51. First issued for service with 64 Sqn 17.5.51 coded H.

Written off 5.5.52 when collided at 25,000 feet with USAF F-86 49-1311 of the 92nd FS, 81st FG, USAF, based at RAF Shepherds Grove, Suffolk, during exercises (reportedly a mock "three-quarter attack") and both pilots abandoned their respective aircraft. The Meteor came down in woodland near Piccards Rough, Sandy Lane, St Catherines, near Guildford, Surrey. The F-86 came down at Blackwell Farm, Wood Street, Guildford, Surrey. According to a contemporary (American) newspaper report (Newport Daily News from Newport, Rhode Island May 6 1952, Page 5):

"LONDON: Two surprised jet fighter pilots, one British and one American, bailed out of their planes at a six-mile altitude and drifted into London's southern suburbs with each wondering, "What hit me?" Their planes collided during joint exercises yesterday between the U.S. Air Force and Royal Air Force. After the pilots parachuted three miles apart. The British pilot floated down onto a suburban sidewalk and reported, "Someone chipped off my tail." The American flier, Capt. Milton G. Whitford of the 81st Fighter Wing, dodged chimney pots and landed an arm's length from a backyard hothouse. "I hope I Didn't hurt your rose tree," he told the startled householder. "

Pilot of the Meteor - Squadron Leader P. D. THOMPSON (pilot) RAF - ejected OK, and came down unhurt at Merrow, Surrey, beside the Epsom Road (near a road called Gateways). The pilot of the F-86, Captain Milton G. Whitford, USAF, landed in the garden of a house in Ripley High Street with cuts and shock.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.125 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983)
3. Last Take Off; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p.245
4. Newport Daily News from Newport, Rhode Island May 6 1952 · Page 5 at https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/57438375/
5. 64 Squadron ORB (Operations Records Book)(Air Ministry Form AM/F.540) For the period January 1 1951 to December 31 1955: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 27/2626/2 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8424985
6. http://www.guildford-dragon.com/2012/02/28/witnesses-sough-to-aircraft-collision-over-guildford/
7. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WE
8. http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1949.html
9. http://www.guildford-dragon.com/2013/01/24/cold-war-fighter-jet-collision-over-guildford/

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
05-Jun-2008 16:46	JINX	Added
12-May-2015 08:24	AlLah	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Narrative]
27-May-2017 20:48	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
27-May-2017 20:51	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
28-May-2017 23:49	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Source]
06-Mar-2021 15:47	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Source, Narrative]