Date:	Wednesday 22 July 1953
Time:	day
Type:	Gloster Meteor F Mk 8
Owner/operator:	64 Sqn RAF
Registration:	WK978
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	near RAF Wratting Common, West Wickham, Suffolk, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Duxford, Cambridgeshire
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor F.Mk.8 WK978, 64 Squadron, RAF: Delivered 26/3/1953. Sole operational service was with 64 Squadron at RAF Duxford, Cambridgeshire. Written off (destroyed) 22/7/1953 when crashed near RAF Wratting Common, West Wickham, Suffolk

The aircraft was part of a multi-aircraft formation take off from RAF Duxford, and had climbed with the formation to an altitude of 1,000 feet. The formation then began to climb through cloud, but the pilot of Meteor WK978 lost sight of his leader in cloud at 7,000 feet. He called the formation leader on the R/T, and was ordered to turn away from his current heading, and rejoin the formation on breaking through the cloudbase

However, nothing further was heard from the pilot of Meteor WK978 (he did not acknowledge the R/T call), and the aircraft broke away to starboard, turned through 180 degrees, then descended, extending the airbrakes at the same time.

Meteor WK978 broke through the cloud base at an altitude of 1,000 feet, in conditions of poor visibilty and heavy rain, with the horizon being indistinct. The pilot then turned his aircraft to port, still with the airbrakes extended, and allowed the aircraft's nose to drop; the Meteor dived into the ground at West Wickham, Suffolk. The pilot was killed

Crew of Meteor WK978:
Pilot Officer Anthony Dowding YOUNG (pilot) RAF - killed in service 22/7/1953

The reported crash location of West Wickham is a village and civil parish in South Cambridgeshire, England, 10 miles south-east of Cambridge on the border with Suffolk. However, it is believed that Meteor WK978 came down in a field "just over the border" in Suffolk.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.147 ISBN 0-85130-290-4
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983 p 71)
3. Last Take off; A Record of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p.392
4. 64 Squadron ORB (Operations Records Book)(Air Ministry Form AM/F.540) For the period January 1 1951 to December 31 1955: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 27/2626/2 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8424985
5. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WK
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Wratting_Common
7. http://www.wcnhistory.org.uk/history.html
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Wickham,_Cambridgeshire

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
19-Jun-2008 18:30	JINX	Added
12-May-2015 16:44	BlB	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location]
04-May-2021 22:04	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Phase, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
05-May-2021 08:28	INV	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Narrative, Operator]
05-May-2021 11:52	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]