Date:	Wednesday 27 June 1951
Time:	day
Type:	Gloster Meteor F Mk 4
Owner/operator:	226 OCU RAF
Registration:	VT246
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Bradwell-on-Sea, Dengie Peninsula, Essex, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.)
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Stradishall, Suffolk
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor F4, VT246, 226 OCU RAF: delivered 16/9/1948. Written off 24/6/1951 when crashed at Bradwell-on-Sea, Dengie Peninsula, Essex, England. The pilot of this aircraft had alreasdy carried out a number of air-to-ground live firing sorties on the Gunnery Range targets at Bradwell-on-Sea. On two successive firing passes, the pilot of Meteor VT246 had been warned by the Range Safety Officer that he had descended to below the breifed safely altitude, and he was "waved off" on both occasions.

On the third live firing pass, the aircraft dived steeply onto the target, appeared to "mush" into the ground, and then strike a 20 foot high sea wall, some 100 yards beyond the target. Meteor VT246 exploded on impact, and the pilot was killed

Crew of Meteor VT246
Sergeant Stuart WATSON, RAF (pilot,aged 20) - killed on active service 27/6/51

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.115 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983)
3. Last Take Off; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p.151
4. 226 OCU ORB (Operations Record Book)(Air Ministry Form AM/F.540) for the period 1/1/1951 to 31/5/1955: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 29/2165/1 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7162873
6. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VT
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradwell-on-Sea

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
01-Feb-2021 03:05	Dr. John Smith	Added
01-Feb-2021 03:11	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
01-Feb-2021 09:31	Dr.Roup	Updated [Operator, Nature, Operator]