Date:	Wednesday 28 July 1954
Time:	day
Type:	Gloster Meteor T Mk 7
Owner/operator:	CFS RAF
Registration:	WL457
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Other fatalities:	2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Lower Heyford, 2 miles S of RAF Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.)
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Little Rissington, Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Destination airport:	RAF Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor T.Mk.7 WL457: Notified as awaiting collection 11/8/52, delivered 15/9/52. Operational service was with 211 AFS, and the CFS (Central Flying School), RAF.

Written off (destroyed) 28/7/54: WL457 was one of two Meteors of the CFS flying in close formation at an altitude of approximately 1,000 feet (the other Meteor was WL374) when the two aircraft were involved in a mid air collision during a formation change. Neither crew was able to escape, and both crews (two in each aircraft) were killed when the Meteors crashed two miles south of RAF Upper Heyford, at Lower Heyford, Cherwell District, Oxfordshire

Crew of Meteor WL457:
Flight Lieutenant John Rowland Douche DFC, RAF (QFI Instructor Pilot, Service Number 59230, aged 28)
Flight Lieutenant Brian Geoffrey Rendle RAF (Pilot, Service Number 607025, aged 26)

Flight Lieutenant Randle was buried at St Peter Churchyard, Little Rissington, Gloucestershire (along with both crew members of Meteor WL374). Flight Lieutenant Douche was buried at Newmarket Town Cemetery, Newmarket, Forest Heath District, Suffolk.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.161 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1985 p.73)
3. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.77
4. RAF Little Rissington: The Central Flying School 1946 - 76 p.313 By R. Deacon, A. Pollock, M. Thomas, R. Bagshaw
5. https://www.militaryimages.net/media/brian-geoffrey-rendle.140273/
6. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/183568199/john-roland-douche
7. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WL
.

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
17-Apr-2020 00:42	Dr. John Smith	Added
17-Apr-2020 10:22	BlB	Updated [Operator, Location, Nature, Operator]
18-Apr-2020 17:58	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Other fatalities, Source]
09-Jul-2023 22:00	Nepa	Updated [[Other fatalities, Source]]