Date:	Thursday 25 October 1951
Time:	day
Type:	Gloster Meteor F Mk 4
Owner/operator:	226 OCU RAF
Registration:	VT278
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	2 miles south of RAF Watton, Thetford, Norfolk, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Initial climb
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Watton, Norfolk
Destination airport:	RAF Stradishall, Suffolk
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor F.Mk.4 VT278, 226 OCU, RAF: Written off (destroyed) 25/10/51 when crashed two miles south of RAF Watton, Thetford, Norfolk. PIlot killed.

The aircraft was seen flying straight and level at about 1,000 feet, and then to climb to about 1,500 feet, whereupon the pilot bailed out, and the aircraft dived vertically into the ground, two miles south of Watton, Norfolk. The cause of the crash (and of the pilot baling out) was engine failure due to fuel starvation, due to the failure of the pilot to switch on the ventral fuel tank feed. After baling out prematurely, the pilot's parachute became entangled in the tailplane of the Meteor and he was killed due to being dragged down with the parachute still attached to the aircraft

Crew of Meteor VT278
Pilot Officer (2447652) Colin Richard SMAIL (pilot) RAF - killed on active service 25/10/51

Note that some published sources give the pilot's name as "Small" (s-m-a-l-l) due to the poor/smudged handwriting on the official record card. In later official records (The London Gazette for 13-11-1951 - see link #11) it was announced that the pilot had been promoted to the rank of Pilot Officer (from Cadet Pilot) retrospectively to 1-5-1951, but that he was "since deceased". Thus he was at the rank of Pilot Officer at the time of his death, but it had not been not officially announced.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.121 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Last Take-off: A Record of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 Colin Cummings p 191
3. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain 1983)
4. 226 OCU ORB (Operations Record Book)(Air Ministry Form AM/F.540) for the period 1/1/1951 to 31/5/1955: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 29/2165/1 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7162873
5. The Times (London) 26 and 27 October 1951
6. National Archives (PRO Kew) File BT233/72: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C424193
7. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AVIA 5/31/S2548: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C6578394
8. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VT
9. http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?12957-Fatal-crash-25-October-1951
10. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/39381/supplement/5913/data.pdf .

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
27-Dec-2019 21:02	Dr. John Smith	Added
27-Dec-2019 21:40	stehlik49	Updated [Operator, Operator]
13-Feb-2021 15:54	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Source, Narrative]
13-Feb-2021 15:56	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
13-Feb-2021 15:57	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
13-Feb-2021 20:15	Koumas	Updated [Operator, Location, Nature, Narrative, Operator]
14-Feb-2021 00:04	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]