Date:	Sunday 5 May 1946
Time:	11:20
Type:	Gloster Meteor F Mk 4
Owner/operator:	CFE AFDS RAF
Registration:	EE578
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Braceby, 6 miles east of Grantham, Lincolnshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF West Raynham, Norfolk
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor F.Mk.4 EE578: Delivered 17 October 1946 to the CFE AFDS (Central Fighter Establishment Air Fighting Develpment Squadron), RAF West Raynham, Norfolk

Written off (damaged beyond repair) 5 May 1947. Structural failure in flight; fuselage broke off just behind the cockpit during practice interception of a quartet of Spitfires at low level over Braceby, near Grantham, Lincolnshire. Pilot - Wing Commander Harold Bird-Wilson DSO, DFC, AFC - abandoned the aircraft and bailed out, parachuting to safety. He was not able to eject, as the aircraft was not fitted with an ejection seat, although this incident hastened their introduction

At the time, Wing Commander Bird-Wilson was the Officer Commanding, Air Fighting Development Squadron, Central Fighter Establishment, RAF West Raynham

Braceby is a small English village in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, and lies to the south of the A52 road, about 6 miles (10 km) east of the market town of Grantham.

In the period between 1 January 1946 and 31 December 1953, no less than 27 Meteors were lost as a result of in-flight structural failure. This figure does not include Meteors that broke up as a result of mid-air collisions. A report on this was written in 1957, but the file in the National Archives in Kew is sealed for 75 years, and is thus unavailable until 1 January 2032.

1. Halley, James (1999). Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.62. ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft EA100-EZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1988 p 21)
3. Final Landings: A Summary of RAF Aircraft and Combat Losses 1946 to 1949 by Colin Cummings p.278
4. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AVIA 5/29/W2378: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C6578224
5. Air Britain Aeromilitaria Autumn 2009 p.125: https://air-britain.com/pdfs/aeromilitaria/Aeromilitaria_2009.pdf
6. Meteor from the Cockpit: Britain’s First Jet Fighter by Peter Caygill
7. http://www.bcar.org.uk/1945-49-incident-logs#1947
8. http://www.rafweb.org/Biographies/Bird-Wilson.htm
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Bird-Wilson#After_the_war
10. https://www.tracesofwar.com/persons/13110/Bird-Wilson-Harold-Arthur-Cooper.htm?c=aw
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braceby

IWM Archive Photo of Harold Bird-Wilson DSO,DFC, AFC in 1945: WING COMMANDER BIRD-WILSON DSO.,DFC & BAR. © CH 14693

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
24-Nov-2019 23:17	Dr. John Smith	Added
27-Nov-2019 11:58	Nepa	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Embed code, Operator]
20-Jul-2021 13:18	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Location, Source, Embed code, Narrative, Category]
20-Jul-2021 16:08	Quentin	Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Operator]
17-May-2023 21:34	Dr. John Smith	Updated [[Time, Operator, Location, Operator]]