Date:	Tuesday 10 July 1951
Time:	11:53
Type:	Gloster Meteor F Mk 4
Owner/operator:	205 AFS RAF
Registration:	VZ418
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Burn Moor, Forest of Bowland, near Clapham, North Yorkshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.)
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Middleton St. George, Darlington, County Durham
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor F.Mk.4 VZ418, 205 AFS (Advanced Flying School), RAF: Delivered 6/1/1950. Written off (destroyed) 10/7/1951. On Tuesday 10th July 1951 Pilot Officer Valentine, a 25 year old trainee pilot with just under 200 hours of flying experience, took off from RAF Middleton St George near to Darlington for a training flight where he would practice making high speed turns at a moderate to high altitude. Around 70 minutes into the flight at 11:53 the aircraft was seen to dive into the ground on Burn Moor, to the south-west of Keasden, a hill in the North East of the Forest of Bowland, a few miles west of the town of Settle and explode. The pilot was killed

Crew of Meteor VZ418
Pilot Officer John Valentine RAF (Pilot, Servie Number 4039629, aged 25), of Methil, Fife - killed on active service 10/7/1951. Buried Methilmill Cemetery, Buckhaven, Fife

At the time the weather was reasonable with scattered cloud and some light showers about, but the cloud base was above the hills according to the weather report from Squires Gate. A fairly deep area of low pressure had travelled across the UK in the preceding 12 hours with its associated weather fronts having moved out into the North Sea.

The cause of the crash was not positively determined, only that a loss of control had occurred, even the timing of it being before or after the dive began was not known. At the time Pilot Officer Valentine would have been using the aircraft’s onboard oxygen supply and the cause was speculated as possible anoxia due to insufficient oxygen. His remains were recovered from the crash site and he was buried at Methilhill Cemetery in Fife.

The reported crash location of "Clapham" is a village in the civil parish of Clapham-cum-Newby in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. It was previously in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It lies within the Yorkshire Dales National Park, 6 miles (10 km) north-west of Settle, and just off the A65 road. Note, however, that Burn Moor straddles the Yorkshire/Lancashire Border (at approxmate co ordinates 54.07139 N, 2.47598 W) and the official postcode address is "Lancaster LA2". Which explains why some published sources quote the crash location as "Yorkshire", and others as "Lancashire"(!). This accident occurred in very similar circumstances to that of Meteor VT239 which crashed in the same area only weeks previously and sadly the pilot was also killed in this incident.

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. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983)
3. Last Take Off; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p.157
4. 205 AFS ORB (Operations Record Book)(Air Ministry Form AM/F.540) for the period 1/1/1951 to 31/5/1954: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 29/2145/2 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7162859
5. http://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/crash_sites/pennines/gloster-meteor-vz418-burn-moor/
6. https://www.facebook.com/PeakDistrictAirAccidentResearch/posts/gloster-meteor-f-mk4-vz418-of-no205-advanced-flying-school-raf-crashed-on-burn-m/2916476668576616/
7. http://www.dtvmovements.co.uk/Info/History/Accidents.htm
8. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VZ
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapham,_North_Yorkshire
10. http://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/planes/dales/vz418.html

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
02-Feb-2021 21:31	Dr. John Smith	Added
02-Feb-2021 21:32	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
03-Feb-2021 13:10	Uzi	Updated [Operator, Nature, Narrative, Operator]
12-Feb-2021 23:11	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Source, Narrative]
12-Feb-2021 23:12	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]