Date:	Thursday 1 October 1953
Time:	night
Type:	Gloster Meteor NF Mk 11
Owner/operator:	228 OCU RAF
Registration:	WM265
MSN:	AWA.2167
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	RAF Leeming, North Yorkshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Leeming, North Yorkshire
Destination airport:	RAF Leeming, North Yorkshire
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor NF.11 WM265, 228 OCU, RAF Leeming: delivered 28/01/1953. Written off (damaged beyond repair) 1/10/1953 in an approach incident at RAF Leeming.

While on final approach to RAF Leeming, North Yorkshire, the pilot was startled by an exteremely bright light from beneath the aircraft. The pilot suspected that the bright light indicated a fire, and the light became more intense when the aircraft entered cloud. The aircraft broke through the cloud base at 1,500 feet, and the pilot saw the runway at RAF Leeming straight ahead.

However, although the pilot had already lowered the undercarriage, and was in a position for a normal landing, he retracted the undercarriage, and set up the aircraft for a wheels-up belly landing. The ventral and port underwing fuel tanks caught fire on contact with the runway at RAF Leeming, and the aircraft was extensively damaged.

Although the airframe was extensively damaged, the two crew were uninjured. The cause of the bright light was discovered not to be a fire, but the reflection of the taxying light on the nosewheel, which had been inadvertantly switched on in flight. This caused a bright light of fluctuating intensity while flying in cloud.

The damaged airframe was sent to Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft at Baginton, Coventry, on 20/11/1953 for damage asessement. Although it was repaired, it was Struck Off Charge on 21/9/1954 upon sale to Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, who, in turn, sold it to the French Air Force.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.150 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Last Take-off: A Record of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p 417
3. 228 Squadron ORB (Operations Record Book)(Air Ministry Form AM/F.540) for the period 1/3/1951 to 31/12/1955: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR AIR 29/2166 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4101876
4. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WM

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
17-May-2021 14:47	Dr. John Smith	Added
17-May-2021 14:48	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
17-May-2021 20:12	Angel Dick one	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Operator]