Date:	Wednesday 22 October 1952
Time:	day
Type:	Gloster Meteor F Mk 8
Owner/operator:	63 Sqn RAF
Registration:	VZ563
MSN:	G5/361737
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Westley Waterless, East Cambridgeshire, 5 miles SW of Newmarket. -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire
Destination airport:	RAF Wattisham, Suffolk
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor F.Mk.8 VZ563, 63 Squadron, RAF: delivered 16/10/1950. Written off 22/10/1952 when flew into the ground at Westley Waterless, East Cambridgeshire, 5 miles SW of Newmarket, Suffolk, on approach to RAF Wattisham, Suffolk. The aircraft was descending in heavy low cloud, which may have misled the pilot as to the Meteor's true altitude.

The pilot was killed. According to a contemporary local newspaper report ("Cambridge Evening News" 23 October 1952):

"Three farm labourers harvesting sugar beet in a field at Westley Waterless had a lucky escape when they decided to break off for lunch two minutes before a Meteor jet fighter crashed into the field. Due to the heavy rain they decided to go home for lunch.

The engines landed on the spot where the men had just finished working. Two of the men had reached the road but Mr V. Clements had stayed an extra minute or two in order to complete a row and was 50 yards from the crash. The pilot of the plane, on a flight from RAR Waterbeach, was killed.

Crew of Meteor VZ563:
Pilot Officer (3504075) Clifford Joseph JONES (pilot) RAF - killed in service 22/10/1952, buried at Walsall Wood Cemetery, Walsall, Staffordshire

The reported crash location of Westley Waterless is a small village and civil parish in East Cambridgeshire, England, 5 miles south west of Newmarket. As Newmarket, Suffolk is the nearest large town, most published sources give the crash location as "Suffolk", when Meteor VZ563 actually crashed over the county boundary in Cambridgeshire.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.135 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.305
4. "Cambridge Evening News" 23 October 1952
5. 63 Squadron ORB (Operational Record Book) for the period 1/1/1951 to 31/12/1955: National Archives (PRO Kew) file AIR 27/2626/1 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2505264
6. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VZ
7. http://www.wattisham.org.uk/wattisham_aviation_accidents.htm
8. http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?7683-Pilot-Officer-Clifford-Jones
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westley_Waterless
10. https://archive.org/stream/CambridgeshireAviationScrapbook1897To1990.doc/Cambridgeshire%20Aviation%20Scrapbook%201897%20to%201990.doc_djvu.txt

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
26-Mar-2021 22:15	Dr. John Smith	Added
27-Mar-2021 10:11	MiG17	Updated [Operator, Location, Narrative, Operator]
19-Apr-2021 22:23	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Registration, Location, Source, Narrative]
19-Apr-2021 22:26	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
19-Apr-2021 22:27	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Source]
19-Apr-2021 22:30	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Cn]
21-Apr-2021 16:17	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]