Date:	Friday 27 August 1954
Time:	11:00 LT
Type:	Gloster Meteor T Mk 7
Owner/operator:	8 FTS RAF
Registration:	WH190
MSN:	G5/442139
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	North of Muston, 1.5 miles SW of Filey, North Yorkshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Driffield, North Yorkshire
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor F.Mk.8 WH190: Delivered 3rd January 1952. RAF Service was with 215 AFS (Advanced Flying School) and 8 FTS.

On the 27th August 1954 the pilot of this aircraft was undertaking a training exercise, he was the pilot of one of three Meteors that were flying similar sorties from the same unit. This aircraft was practicing a tail chase with another aircraft and during which the aircraft broke away and went into a vertical dive.

With 4,000 feet to spare the pilot attempted to bale out but his parachute rip cord caught on part of the canopy on his way out and deployed too early at high speed. This caused the chute to tear in a number of places and on his way down the pilot partly fell out of a loose fitting parachute harness he was wearing and sadly he was killed on striking the ground.

He was found lying on the Scarborough to Filey railway line. The aircraft continued for a short while before partly coming out of its dive and crashing on farmland to the north of Muston at 11.00hrs, twenty five minutes into the flight. One of the aircraft's engines struck a tree damaging it. The other continued over a further field before coming to rest in the River Hertford.

The location widely quoted for this incident is a couple of miles south of Filey. Although Press reports stated the pilot was found on the railway line and the location of the aircraft impact is known and neither are south of Filey, the foward velocity of the plane and pilot would have carried them to the places of impact with the ground.

An investigation was carried out and recommended that pilots should not borrow other pilot's harnesses, something which may have occurred in this case. The Scarborough fire engine attempted to attend to the crash site and over turned in a ditch on the way there.

Crew:
Pilot Officer Edmund Peter ASTON, RAF (Service Number 3515081, pilot, aged 23) - killed on active service 27th August 1954. Buried High Hoyland Church, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.

Edmund Aston received a short service commission on 27th May 1953 (with his period of service to count from 14th January 1953) to Acting Pilot Officer on probation. He was graded as a Pilot Officer on 24th March 1954

The crash location was on the outskirts of Muston, a village and civil parish, in the Scarborough district of North Yorkshire, England. The village is situated 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south-west from the centre of the coastal town of Filey, and on the A1039 road at approximate co ordinates 54.200°N 0.322°W

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.162 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1985 p.48)
3. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.84
4. The Gloster Meteor in British Service By Martin Derry
5. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WH
6. https://www.pprune.org/military-aircrew/70987-meteor-accident-statistics-10.html
7. http://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/yorkshire/yorksother/wh190.html
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muston,_North_Yorkshire
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Hertford
10. http://web.archive.org/web/20170421194230/http://www.ejection-history.org.uk:80/PROJECT/YEAR_Pages/1954.htm

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
09-Jun-2008 19:49	JINX	Added
05-May-2013 14:22	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Location, Phase, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
12-May-2015 17:39	BlB	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Narrative]
20-Apr-2020 00:38	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Cn, Location, Source, Narrative]
27-Jan-2022 21:03	ronales	Updated [Departure airport, Narrative]