Date:	Wednesday 21 September 1955
Time:	00:3
Type:	Gloster Meteor NF Mk 12
Owner/operator:	AW OCU RAF
Registration:	WS683
MSN:	AWA.
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2
Other fatalities:	1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Great Cubley, 6 miles (10 km) south of Ashbourne, Derbyshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF North Luffenham, Rutland
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor NF.Mk.12 WS683: Delivered 28/8/53. RAF service career was with 228 OCU and the AW OCU (All Weather Operation Conversion Unit) RAF

Written off (destroyed) 21/9/55: During a night interception exercise, Meteor NF.12 WS621 was acting as the target aircraft with another Meteor NF.12 of the AW OCU (WS683) acting as the chasing aircraft. Both aircraft collided over Church Broughton, Derbyshire, and both aircraft dived into the ground. WS683 managed to remain airborne long enough to come down at Great Cubley, six miles (10 km) south of Ashbourne in Derbyshire.

Both crews of both aircraft bailed out, but the pilot of Meteor NF.12 WS621, Pilot-Officer Michael Longman, from Potter's Bar, Middlesex, got his parachute tangled up with the empennage of his aircraft, failed to get free, was dragged down with the aircraft and was killed. His navigator, Pilot-Officer David Harrington, bailed out safely. Neither aircraft was equipped with ejector seats. The crew of Meteor WS683 both bailed out successfully, and parachuted to the ground uninjured. The pilot was Pilot Officer Tony Gladwell, 22, from Nottingham, and his navigator was Pilot Officer Brian Bayley.

The reported crash location of Great Cubley is a parish of two closely linked villages six miles (10 km) south of Ashbourne in Derbyshire. Great Cubley and Little Cubley are known collectively as Cubley, at approximate coordinates 52.941°N 1.763°W. One aircraft crashed at West Broughton Hollow and the second near Sudbury Open Prison.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.174 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983 p 92)
3. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.157
4. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WS
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mid-air_collisions_and_incidents_in_the_United_Kingdom#1950s
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Broughton
7. Derbyshire County Archives (names of crew and crash locations).

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
29-May-2020 13:44	Dr. John Smith	Added
29-May-2020 15:34	MIG29	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Nature, Narrative, Operator]
31-May-2020 19:06	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Narrative]