Date:	Tuesday 29 April 1952
Time:	night
Type:	Gloster Meteor F Mk 4
Owner/operator:	205 AFS RAF
Registration:	VW298
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Other fatalities:	1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Between Sockburn and Neasham, County Durham -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Middleton St. George, near Darlington, County Durham
Destination airport:	RAF Middleton St. George, near Darlington, County Durham
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor F.Mk.4 VW298, 205 AFS (Advanced Flying School) RAF: Written off (destroyed) 29/4/1952 when collided with Gloster Meteor F.Mk.4 RA480 over Low Dinsdale, one and a quarter miles south west of RAF Middleton St. George, County Durham. Both aircraft were involved in night flying training.

Meteor VW298 overshot the landing on final approach to RAF Middleton St. George, and began an orbit of the airfield, instead of continuing the circuit. In doing so, the two aircraft collided in the circuit (and vicinity) of RAF Middleton St. George and crashed, killing the pilots of each respective aircraft. Meteor RA480 came down at Low Dinsdale, and Meteor VW298 came down between Sockburn and Neasham, approximately four miles south of the airfield.

Crew of Meteor VW298
Pilot Officer (582903) Malcolm Hugh GODDARD (pilot) RAF - killed 29/4/1952

The reported crash location of Sockburn is a village and former civil parish to the south of Darlington in County Durham, England. It is situated at the apex of a meander of the River Tees, known locally as the Sockburn Peninsula. Today, all that remains of the village is an early nineteenth-century mansion, a ruined church and a farmhouse built in the late eighteenth century. Neasham is a village approximately four miles to the south east of Darlington in County Durham, England

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p. 128 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Last Take-off: A Record of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p 243
3. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J. Halley, Air Britain)
4. 203 AFS ORB (Operations Record Book)(Air Ministry Form AM/F.540) for the period 1/1/1951 to 31/5/1954: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 29/2145/1 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7162858
5. http://www.nelsam.org.uk/NEAR/Losses/Losses-PostWWII.htm
6. http://www.dtvmovements.co.uk/Info/History/Accidents.htm
7. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VW
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sockburn
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neasham

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
05-Mar-2021 23:51	Dr. John Smith	Added
05-Mar-2021 23:51	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Other fatalities]
05-Mar-2021 23:52	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
06-Mar-2021 09:57	sicak	Updated [Operator, Narrative, Operator]