Date:	Friday 19 June 1953
Time:	day
Type:	Gloster Meteor T Mk 7
Owner/operator:	215 AFS RAF
Registration:	VW483
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Haxey, Isle of Axholme, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Finningley, South Yorkshire
Destination airport:	RAF Finningley, South Yorkshire

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor T.Mk.7, VW483, 215 AFS (Advanced Flying School), RAF: delivered 20/7/1949. Written off 19/6/1953, when crashed near Stockwith Bridge on the Haxey to West Stockwith Road, Haxey, Isle of Axholme, Lincolnshire..

The Meteor was on a flying training sortie from RAF Finningley, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, and was flying at an altiude of 2,000 feet under asymmetric (single engine) power, with one engine shut down. In addition, the aircraft was flying with the undercarriage lowered, and the airbrakes extended. In this condition, the aircraft suddenly flicked over, rolling to the right, and diving vertically into the ground. Both crew did not bail out, and were killed.

Crew of Meteor VW483:
Flight Lieutenant (59478) Louis Guy "Tank" TANCRED (QFI Flying Instructor) RAF - killed in service 19/6/1953
Pilot-Officer John Montague WOOD (Pupil Pilot Under Instruction) RAF - killed in service 19/6/1953. He was 21.

Flt-Lt Tancred, 34, was married with four children. Born in Transvaal, Flt-Lt Tancred's father Louis (senior) had been a renowned South African cricketer. "Tank" had finished WW2 as an Acting Flt-Lt (career details not known) with the RAF, and remained on a permanent commission. He lived ''on base" while his wife Maria and the children, two sets of twins (three boys and a girl) lived at Slapton, Devon. He is buried at Finningley.

Haxey is in north-west Lincolnshire at the border with Nottinghamshire. Firefighters from Notts. Fire Service at Misterton and Retford attended. The aircraft crashed into a sugar beet field injuring farmer George Smith, aged 70 (head injuries when knocked out by blast) and his son Alfred (43) severe cuts to back from flying metal. Another farmer, Rowland Whitehead, 46, said the aircraft was steered away from Haxey village before crashing.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.145 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Last Take-off: A Record of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p 380
3. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1985 p 84)
4. 215 AFS ORB (Operations Record Book)(Air Ministry Form AM/F.540) for the period 1/2/1952 to 30/6/1954: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 29/2143/3 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7162857
5. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VW
6. https://getoutside.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/local/isle-of-axholme-north-lincolnshire
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Tancred

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
01-May-2021 21:35	Dr. John Smith	Added
02-May-2021 11:24	gerard	Updated [Operator, Location, Narrative, Operator]
06-Dec-2023 15:21	Paul Allonby	Updated [Location, Source, Narrative]