Date:	Thursday 21 December 1950
Time:	11:45 LT
Type:	Gloster Meteor F Mk 4
Owner/operator:	TFU RAF
Registration:	VT342
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Bransford House Farm, Bransford, Worcester -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Test
Departure airport:	RAF Defford, Worcestershire
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor F.Mk.4 VT342, TFU (Telecommunications Flying Unit) RAF: Delivered 2/12/1948. Written off (destroyed) 21/12/1950: Purpose of flight - aircraft flying as target on radar trials. Shortly after take-off, the aircraft emerged in a shallow dive from low cloud at an altitude of approximately 500 feet, and turned inverted before hitting the ground at Bransford House Farm, Worcester. The pilot was killed.

Crew of Meteor F.4 VT342:
Flight Lieutenant Donald James McAulay Macdonald, TFU Defford (Pilot, Service Number 128463, aged 29) - killed on active service 21/12/1950

A local newspaper report (Worcester News 21 December 2000) adds the following:

"21st December 2000
Christmas marred by a tragic jet crash

THE run-up to Christmas in Worcestershire half a century ago was marred by the tragic death of a young pilot in a jet crash at Bransford.

Twenty-nine years-old Flight Lieutenant Donald James McCauley Macdonald met his death when his Meteor IV aircraft plunged to the ground on the morning of December 21, 1950. He had been living in married quarters at RAF Pershore but hailed from Glasgow.

The Journal reported: "The young pilot was killed when his jet from RAF Defford crashed and exploded between Bransford Bridge and Bransford Court at 11.45 a.m. yesterday.

Two Worcester anglers were eye-witnesses Donald Grubb, 55, of Gillam Street, and Eric Edward Hunt, 74, of Tunnel Hill. They were fishing only 400 yards from the scene of the crash and saw the aircraft dive from the clouds. It appeared to be out of control and turned on its back before crashing.

The main part of the plane buried itself in the earth, making a 15ft deep crater, and debris was scattered over a very wide area".

The reported crash location of Bransford is a village and civil parish in the Malvern Hills district of the county of Worcestershire, England. It is situated close to the River Teme and the village of Leigh. It is on the primary route between Worcester and Hereford, the A4103 that runs through the centre of the village.

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983)
2. Last Take Off; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p.101
3. Worcester News 21 December 2000: https://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/7777640.christmas-marred-by-a-tragic-jet-crash/
4. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VT
5. https://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/memorial/entry.php?id=206
6. https://deffordairfieldheritagegroup.wordpress.com/aircraft-at-defford/aircraft-at-defford/
7. https://www.facebook.com/FASTmuseum/posts/compilation-of-21-dec-in-aerospace-history21-dec-2011-launch-of-soyuz-tma-03m-ru/803791296413045/
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bransford .

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
06-Jan-2021 22:00	Dr. John Smith	Added
06-Jan-2021 22:01	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
31-Jan-2021 10:37	Oezil 007	Updated [Operator, Operator]