Date:	Tuesday 9 September 1952
Time:	day
Type:	Gloster Meteor F Mk 8
Owner/operator:	1 Sqn RAF
Registration:	VZ542
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Oving, near RAF Tangmere, Chichester, West Sussex, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.)
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Tangmere, Chichester, West Sussex
Destination airport:	RAF Tangmere, West Sussex
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor F.Mk.8 VZ542, 1 Squadron RAF: delivered 24/7/1950. Written off 9/9/1952 when crashed at Oving, near RAF Tangmere, Chichester, West Sussex. The pilot was carrying out low level aerobatic practice, during which the Meteor entered a slow roll at an altitude of approximately 200-300 feet. When the aircraft was inverted, the nose of the Meteor began to drop. Although the pilot rolled the aircraft back to "the right way up", the Meteor struck the ground near RAF Tangmere, and burst into the flames on impact. The pilot was killed

Crew of Meteor VZ542:
Flight Lieutenant Eric George Edmund Wingham, RAF (pilot, aged 29) - killed in service 9/9/1952.

The engine landed in a garden missing a baby asleep in a pram. (In total, 5 RAF Meteors crashed in the UK on that one day, in four unrelated incidents, killing 2 pilots). According to the report of the Inquest into the death of the pilot, as reported in a comtemporary local newspaper ("Bognor Regis Observer" - Saturday 20 September 1952)

"Pilot Flew Too Near Ground

A PILOT who crashed while practising aerobatics in a Meteor Jet aircraft at Tangmere last week was flying too near the ground. The accident prevention officer at the aerodrome gave this reason for the crash to the Deputy Coroner, Dr. L. C. De R. Epps, at a Chichester inquest on Monday on the death of 29-year-old Flight Lieutenant Eric George Edmund Wingham, of Married Quarters, Tangmere.

Flt-Lieut. R. V. Potts, accident prevention officer and officer in charge of the flight to which the crashed aircraft was attached, said Flt.-Lieut. Wingham had been briefed before taking off to carry out low-flying aerobatics.

"I saw him before he went up and he was perfectly fit and well," he went on. "He was not given a set series of events to practice - it was left to him to produce an acrobatic display. He was a most experienced acrobatic pilot, having given several displays in different parts of England and was extremely capable in the execution of aerobatics."

Describing the fatal acrobatic manoeuvre, Flt.-Lieut. Potts said Flt.-Lieut. Wingham was flying over the runway a "few hundred feet" up and rolled the Meteor over on its back. While flying in this position the nose started to drop, and the pilot tried to get the aircraft "the right way up." He had almost succeeded when he hit the ground.

Asked by a member of the jury to state the height at which the aircraft was flying Flt.-Lieut. Potts said "between two and three hundred feet". In answer to another question he said Air Ministry regulations laid down that pilots must not take their aircraft below 400 feet when they were engaged in low flying or aerobatics.

Coroner: Do you think he would have been all right if he had been flying a little higher.

Flt.-Lieut- Potts: He would have been all right.

Asked if he could give his opinion on the cause of the crash, the flt.-lieut. said, "I think the pilot momentarily lost control while flying inverted." He added that in his view there was nothing to suggest any failure on the part of the aircraft. He had examined the logbook and found that the plane was perfectly serviced.

Two other eye-witnesses gave their account of the last moments before the crash.

Mr. William Henry Long, foreman of a contracting firm working at Oving, said he saw the aircraft loop the loop then fly along upside down and "very low." It started to "slip" and then struck the ground in a cloud of dust.

A cowman, Mr. Alfred Thomas Jupp. of Oving, said. "I don't usually take any notice of jet aircraft and aerobatics because I am so used to them, but I watched this one because he was so low."

Dr. D. P. King (pathologist) said a post-mortem examination revealed that death was due to fracture of the skull and laceration of the brain due to violence. Death was almost instantaneous.

Without retiring the jury returned a "Misadventure" verdict. They had been warned by the Coroner to pay no attention to anything they had seen or read about deaths from jet aircraft crashes being more frequent than deaths from any other type of flying. This had been disproved by the Air Ministry who had issued figures proving that there were more deaths from propeller driven aircraft than from jets."

The reported crash location of Oving is a civil and ecclesiastical parish in West Sussex, lying on the coastal plain immediately to the east of Chichester. It is bounded on the north and west sides by the A27 trunk road. The A259 Chichester-Bognor road traverses the southern part of the parish.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.134 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Last Take-off: A Record of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p 289
3. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983)
4. Bognor Regis Observer - Saturday 20 September 1952
5. Portsmouth Evening News - Tuesday 16 September 1952
6. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VZ
7. http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=2275.5
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oving,_West_Sussex

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
22-Mar-2021 22:14	Dr. John Smith	Added
22-Mar-2021 22:20	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Source, Narrative]
23-Mar-2021 12:28	Vicktor	Updated [Operator, Location, Destination airport, Operator]
23-Mar-2021 18:17	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]