Date:	Saturday 7 November 1953
Time:
Type:	Gloster Meteor F Mk 8
Owner/operator:	500 (County of Kent) Sqn RAF
Registration:	WF640
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Other fatalities:	1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	near Sutton Valence, one mile NNW of Headcorn, Kent, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF West Malling, Maidstone, Kent
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Metero F.Mk.8 WF640: Delivered to the RAF at 9 MU Cosford 28.6.51; Issued to 12 MU 15.10.51. Entered service with 500 (County of Kent) Sqn, Royal Aux AF 14.1.52 coded H. Based at RAF West Malling, Kent.

Written off when collided with WK805 during camera-gun attack and abandoned 1 mile North-North West of Headcorn, Kent, 7.11.53. Pilot of WF640, Pilot Officer (2680103) P.C.S. Cockell injured after ejecting from his Meteor at 15,000 feet and 320 knots IAS (Indicated Air Speed). The pilot of the other Meteor F.8 (WK805) was killed.

According to a contemporary newspaper report ("Yorkshire Evening Post" - Saturday 7 November 1953):

"JETS CRASH, PILOT JUMPS.
One pilot was killed and another baled out when two Meteor jet fighters collided near Headcorn (Kent) today. The pilot who baled out and landed near Sutton Valence, was Flying Officer Cockell. He was taken to hospital with a fractured leg. The pilot who was killed was found strapped in his ejector seat, several miles away.

Eighty-two year old farmer William Sharp missed being struck by a hurtling 18ft. piece of fuselage by only a few seconds, said his sister, Miss Emily Sharp. He was walking by an oak tree near his farmhouse, Poplar Hall, Headcorn, when the wreckage crashed down, missing a barn near which men were working, and tearing large boughs from the tree."

Meteor WF640 was acting as the target aircraft as a tailchase/camera gun exercise with Meteor WK805 as the pursuer. The pilot of Meteor WF640 commenced a series of barrel rolls around Meteor WK805. The two aircraft collided, with Meteor WF640 losing its tailplane, and its fuel tanks exploded.

THe reported crash location of Meteor WF640 was one mile north north-west of Sutton Valence is a village about five miles South East of Maidstone, Kent, England on the A274 road going south to Headcorn and Tenterden. It is on the Greensand Ridge overlooking the Vale of Kent and Weald.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.152 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Last Take-off: A Record of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 Colin Cummings p 426
3. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1985)
4. 500 (County of Kent) Sqaudron RAF ORB (Operations Record Book)(Air Mininstry Formn AM/F.540) for the period 1/8/1946 to 31/3/1957: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 27/2494 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2505132
5. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WF
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mid-air_collisions_and_incidents_in_the_United_Kingdom#1950s
7. http://web.archive.org/web/20171115111244/http://www.ejection-history.org.uk:80/project/year_pages/1953.htm#nov
8. http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=4577.0
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutton_Valence

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
06-Jun-2008 22:10	JINX	Added
14-Jun-2013 18:27	Nepa	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator]
24-Oct-2017 21:00	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Aircraft type, Phase, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
03-Feb-2020 22:10	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Source, Narrative]
03-Feb-2020 22:13	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
22-May-2021 17:08	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
22-May-2021 17:13	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
18-Aug-2021 10:58	BlBe	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Location, Operator]