Date:	Wednesday 14 October 1953
Time:	day
Type:	Gloster Meteor F Mk 4
Owner/operator:	209 AFS RAF
Registration:	VT303
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Bristol Channel, off Tenby, Carmarthen Bay, Pembrokeshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Weston Zoyland, Bridgwater, Somerset
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor F.Mk.4, VT303, 209 AFS (Advanced Flying School) RAF: Delivered 29/10/1948. Initial service with 74 (Tiger) Squadron, RAF at RAF Horsham St.Faith, Norfolk as "4D-L". Later to 209 AFS (Advanced Flying School), RAF, Weston Zoyland, Bridgwater, Somerset.

Written off 14/10/1953 in a flying accident when flew into the Bristol Channel, off Tenby, Carmarthen Bay, Pembrokeshire. The aircraft dived into the Bristol Channel from an altitude of 10,000 feet, after failing to recover from an inverted spin. The pilot was killed.

Crew of Meteor VT303:
Pilot Officer Ronald Miles BENT (pilot) RAF- killed in service 14/10/1953, body recovered 28/10/1953, buried at Weston Zolyand Cemetery, Bridgwater, Somerset (Grave G227). He was born on 7/2/29 at New Plymouth, New Zealand.

The pilot abandoned his aircraft over Cardigan Bay, and the Tenby Lifeboat was dispatched to the location of where the pilot was presumed to have come down in the sea. In the event, the lifeboat was unable to locate the pilot, and he was officially posted as "missing, presumed killed". It was fourteen days later, on 28/10/1953, that the pilot's body was washed ashore on a river bank of the River Parrett, at Stretcholt, near Pawlett, Somerset, where it was sighted by an employee of the local Water Board.

It seems that anoxia (Oxygen Stavation) was suspected as the likely cause of the accident. It was presumed that the pilot passed out due to anoxia, and did not recover in time to save himself and his aircraft.

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain)
2. Halley, James (1999). Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Tunbridge Wells, Kent, United Kingdom: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. ISBN 0-85130-290-4. p 150)
3. Last Take Off; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p.421
4. Wings Over Somerset: Aircraft Crashes since the End of World War II By Peter Forrester
5. Western Gazette 15 October 1953
6. 209 AFS ORB (Operational Record Book)(Air Ministry Form AM/F.540) for the period 1/7/1952 to 31/5/1954: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 29/2148/1 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7162862
7. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VT
8. As "4D-L" of 74 Sqaudron, RAF 1949: http://wpalette.com/en/pictures/34801
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenby
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawlett
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmarthen_Bay

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
19-May-2021 17:14	Dr. John Smith	Added
19-May-2021 20:09	MiG23	Updated [Operator, Location, Narrative, Operator]
20-May-2021 15:15	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
20-May-2021 17:02	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Source, Narrative]
22-May-2021 15:30	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]