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Date: | Tuesday 15 February 1955 |
Time: | afternoon |
Type: | Gloster Meteor T Mk 7 |
Owner/operator: | 12 FTS RAF |
Registration: | WH194 |
MSN: | Not Known |
Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2 |
Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
Location: | Lympsham, 6 miles west of Axbridge, Somerset -
United Kingdom
|
Phase: | Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.) |
Nature: | Military |
Departure airport: | RAF Weston Zoyland, Bridgwater, Somerset. |
Destination airport: | RAF Weston Zoyland, Somerset. |
Confidence Rating: | Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Narrative:Gloster Meteor T.Mk.7 WH194: Notified as awaiting collection 14/1/52, delivered to the RAF 16/1/52. RAF career was with 207 AFS (Advanced Flying School), and 12 FTS, RAF Weston Zoyland, Bridgwater, Somerset.
Written off (destroyed) 15/2/55: Abandoned in inverted spin at about 4,000 feet during aerobatic practice. Aircraft dived into the ground at Lympsham, Somerset. Both crew bailed out successfully, and parachuted down to earth.
Crew of Meteor WH194:
Flight Lieutenant Donald Arthur Cooper RAF (Instructor Pilot, Service Number 607202, aged 24)
Lieutenant S. E. Balhawane, Lebanese Air Force (Pupil Pilot Under Instruction, aged 22)
The reported crash location of Lympsham is a village and civil parish six miles west of Axbridge and six miles south-east of Weston-super-Mare, close to the River Axe in Somerset, England, at approximate co ordinates 51.286°N 2.955°W
The instructor pilot later rose through the ranks to become Wing Commander Donald Arthur Cooper RAF, CBE, AFC. He died suddenly but peacefully on December 31st 2019 aged 89 (see link #9 for a biography)
Sources:
1. Eyewitness report Provided by the instructor pilot-Wing Commander D A Cooper RAF on 12-March-2013
2. Wings Over Somerset: Aircraft Crashes since the End of World War II By Peter Forrester
3. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.168 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
4. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1985 p.48)
5. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.117
6.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lympsham 7.
http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WH 8.
http://announcements.telegraph.co.uk/deaths/238699/cooper 9.
http://www.oldcranwellians.info/obits/rip-2019.html Revision history:
Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
09-Jun-2008 19:53 |
JINX |
Added |
12-Mar-2013 12:02 |
D A Cooper |
Updated [Time, Cn, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
20-Jun-2013 04:48 |
Nepa |
Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Departure airport, Destination airport] |
06-May-2020 22:45 |
Dr. John Smith |
Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
06-May-2020 22:46 |
Dr. John Smith |
Updated [Narrative] |
06-May-2020 22:47 |
Dr. John Smith |
Updated [Source] |
06-May-2020 22:54 |
Dr. John Smith |
Updated [Source, Narrative] |
06-May-2020 22:57 |
Dr. John Smith |
Updated [Narrative] |
07-May-2020 08:23 |
MIG29 |
Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Destination airport, Operator] |