Date:	Monday 11 November 1946
Time:	day
Type:	Gloster Meteor F Mk III
Owner/operator:	263 Sqn RAF
Registration:	EE343
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Missing - North Sea -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Manston, Ramsgate, Kent
Destination airport:	Eindhoven, Netherlands

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor EE343: Delivered to 74 Squadron 12.7.45 coded '4D-X'. To 263 Squadron by 31.10.46.
Written off (presumed destroyed) 11.11.46 when went missing on navex (navigation exercise) while flying between RAF Manston, Kent and Eindhoven, Netherlands; presumed ditched in North Sea.
Crew of Meteor EE343:
F/O (196533) William Albert Smith (pilot) RAFVR: reported missing, presumed killed 11-11-46.

As neither the wreckage of Meteor EE343 nor the body of the pilot was ever found, he is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial

1. Halley, James (1999). Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p, 33 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Air-Britain Royal Air Force Aircraft EA100-EZ999
3. Final Landings: A Summary of RAF Aircraft and Combat Losses 1946 to 1949 by Colin Cummings p.244
4. ORB 263 Sqdn RAF for November 1946: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR27/2489/2: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8422544
5. https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/1807593/william-albert-smith/
6. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15263675/william-albert-smith
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._263_Squadron_RAF#Post-war

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
26-May-2023 08:16	Nepa	Updated