Date:	Monday 27 October 1952
Time:	night
Type:	Gloster Meteor F Mk 4
Owner/operator:	205 AFS RAF
Registration:	VW268
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Wethercote Farm, Lower Bilsdale Moor, north of Hawnby, North Yorkshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Middleton St. George, near Darlington, County Durham
Destination airport:	RAF Middleton St. George, Co. Durham
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor F.Mk.4 VW268; delivered 30th December 1948. Written off (damaged beyond repair) 27th October 1952 when crashed at Lower Bilsdale Moor, north of Hawnby, North Yorkshire

On the 27th October 1952 the pilot of this 205 A.F.S. Meteor lost control and it dived into the ground during a night-flying Ground Controlled Approach flying exercise under the control of RAF Seaton Snook. The accident was caused by the trainee pilot taking the wrong flying helmet with him on the aircraft, he passed out due to lack oxygen and was killed in the resulting crash in a field near Wethercote Farm, Lower Bilsdale Moor.

The aircraft dived into the ground near vertically very close to a dry stone wall, this sent soil and stone and parts of the aircraft through the air for hundreds of metres. Needless to say then that the aircraft was completely destroyed. Fuel ignited and set fire to nearby fields to the west of the crash. Following the crash the crater that was made was later filled in and wall rebuilt in later years. The inquest for the crash was held in a hanger at Middleton St George. It concluded that the pilot lost control of the aircraft after passing out due to anoxia (oxygen starvation), and, in turn, this had been cuased by the pilot having mistakenly taken another pilot's oxygen mask. As the oxygen mask taken was not his, but another pilot's, it did not make an airtight seal, with the resulting oxygen leakage casuing the anoxia.

Meteor VW268 was built to contract 6/ACFT/1389 by the Gloster Aircraft Co. Ltd. and was delivered to the RAF on 30th December 1948. It remained in MU storage until being issued to 205 A.F.S. who formed at Middleton St.George on 7th September 1950. The date it arrived there is not known. It was written off following the above accident on 27th October 1952. Cat.5/FA(Burnt) damage was the damage assessment recorded, and the airframe as Struck Off Charge

Crew of Meteor VW268:
Pilot Officer (2521918) John Michael DILL (pilot) RAF - killed .

John Dill was born on 25th February 1933, he was a National Service pilot and received a commission to Acting P/O on probation (from Cadet Pilot) on 25th October 1951. He was confirmed in the rank of P/O on 30th July 1952.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p. 135 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Last Take-off: A Record of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p 305
3. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J. Halley, Air Britain)
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. https://www.nelsam.org.uk/NEAR/Losses/Losses-PostWWII.htm
6. http://www.dtvmovements.co.uk/Info/History/Accidents.htm
7. http://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/planes/46-50/vw268.html
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawnby
9. http://www.wethercotefarm.co.uk/

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
27-Mar-2021 18:21	Dr. John Smith	Added
27-Mar-2021 22:12	Werich26	Updated [Operator, Destination airport, Narrative, Operator]