Date:	Wednesday 20 June 1951
Time:	11:50
Type:	Gloster Meteor F Mk 8
Owner/operator:	66 Sqn RAF
Registration:	WA877
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Near Manston Beacon Farm, Scalby, North Yorkshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Linton-on-Ouse, North Yorkshire (EGXU)
Destination airport:	RAF Linton-on-Ouse, North Yorkshire (EGXU)

Narrative:
Took off at 11:30 hrs for aerobatic exercise & then to practice Ground Controlled Approaches (CGA) to RAF Linton-on-Ouse. Half an hour after take-off, this aircraft was flying in the Scarborough area, towards the town from Harwood Dale direction, when the aircraft's undercarriage locks failed & undercarriage extended. The resulting stress load was too much & the aircraft broke up.

Crashed into fields near Manston Beacon Farm, Scalby, North Yorkshire, killing the pilot instantly, his watch stopping at 11.50 hours. Main crash site near the track over to the farm from Coomboots. Wreckage was spread over fields either side of this track. However a wing section & the main aircraft fuselage came to earth fairly close to one another on slopes below Beacon Brow. The tail of the aircraft is thought to have landed some distance away.

Following investigation of the wreckage it was thought that the Meteor broke up in flight due to a "positive "g" being applied".

Crew:
Sgt (3504636) John Anstee MARTIN (pilot) RAF killed. John trained with 7 FTS in 1949 at RAF Cottesmore. He was the stepson of composer Christian Darnton, who with poet Randall Swingler, wrote ''Jet Pilot" (Cantata “Jet Pilot” for baritone, chorus and orchestra, copyright 1952) in commemoration. John had been the youngest pilot in the 1951 Royal Birthday Flypast and in 1950 the youngest cadet to fly an aircraft (Harvard) in a Battle of Britain air display.

Meteor WA877 was built to contract 6/ACFT/2983 by the Gloster Aircraft Co. Ltd at Hucclecote and delivered to the RAF on 19th February 1951. After acceptance it was issued to 66 Squadron at Linton on Ouse. It sustained Cat.E2/FA damage as a result of the incident detailed above.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.115 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Last Take-off: A Record of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 Colin Cummings p 149
3. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J. Halley, Air Britain, 1983)
4. 66 Squadron ORB (Operations Record Book)(Air Ministry Form AM/F.540) for the period 1/1/1951 to 31/12/1955: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 27/2627/1 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8424987
5. National Archives (PRO Kew) File BT233/57: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C424178
6. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AVIA 5/31/S2533: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C6578379
7. http://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/planes/46-50/wa877.html
8. Film footage of accident: http://www.britishpathe.com/video/jet-aircraft-crash
9. https://www.militaryimages.net/media/john-anstee-martin.102884/
10. https://grahamstevenson.me.uk/2010/12/19/darnton-christopher/

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
31-May-2008 15:17	JINX	Added
15-May-2013 13:32	Nepa	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Narrative]
13-Aug-2013 22:45	JINX	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Source]
12-May-2015 07:18	DB	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Departure airport, Destination airport, Narrative]
12-Mar-2017 14:55	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
12-Mar-2017 15:01	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
27-Dec-2019 16:29	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Source, Narrative]
27-Dec-2019 16:37	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
27-Dec-2019 17:02	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Embed code]
31-Jan-2021 17:10	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
27-Jul-2023 09:26	Nepa	Updated [[Source]]
03-Dec-2023 17:11	Paul Allonby	Updated [Location, Source, Narrative]