Gloster Meteors WH383 & WH384

Gloster Meteors WH383 & WH384

On the 14th November 1953 Meteors WH383 and WH384 flying in close formation but far too low for the area in cloud crashed into Scholes Heights .
Part of  No.610 Squadron they were flying out of Hooton Park on a training exercise .
The pilots it seems were descending when they hit the hillside demolishing a dry stone wall . Two sections of wall were knocked down by the aircraft seperated by a mere 12 feet in distance . It was definately close formation flying .
 We found wreckage associated to both missing  wall sections.
Behind the wall today can be made out to shallow craters where presumably the aircraft disintegrated and wreckage was flung far and wide across the moor .

Both pilots were killed.
They were

F/Lt. Anthony Basil Mercer  flying WH384
and
F/O Arthur Micheal Fletcher
flying WH383

F/Lt Mercer was a local lad and would have been around when an aircraft crashed into the street  where he lived in  Bolton .
    Despite reports that no wreckage exists at this site we found quite a lot scattered  in the deep grasses of the moor  . We have now collected these aircraft fragments to create a pool of wreckage which hopefully will remain to mark the spot these airmen met their end . Seek and ye shall find !

Something missed by the magpies ?! along with a lot of bits they usually leave 

al 

Meteor WD778

Gloster Meteor WD778

 

A meteor similar to the one that crashed

On the 24th March 1954 this aircraft flying out of RAF Leeming crashed into a plateau just beneath the summit of Knock Fell    in Cumbria .  

The crew were known to be on their way back to Leeming . The last radio contact with them occured whilst they were only 5 miles from the airfield . Low cloud obscured the ground and the pilot was instructed to use the Ground Controlled Approach frequency to enable a safe landing .

Nothing  further was seen or heard  of the aircraft until 5 days later when it was discovered by a local gamekeeper . 

It seems that for some reason the radio must have ceased to function properly , the crew must have become disorientated in the cloud and ended up flying too far to the  west , perhaps realisng the mistake they set an easterly course unfortunately hitting the flanks of the pennine hill which lay between them and the base .

Both the 21yearold  crewmen were killed in the crash . 

They were 

P/O John David Briggs  Pilot

F/O  Derrick Walker  Nav/ R.Op.

An overview of the site

A sad footnote to the visit is that some major items have recently been stolen from the site . There are pictures readily available on the internet that show a huge wing section and two whole fan blade hub complete with blades from the engine were there in June 2013 but now in November have gone . 

Due to very clear tracks  it was clear that a large  ATV  had recently visited the site , perhaps this was the method of wreckage removal too .

The site is reletively easy to visit , the Pennine Way passes close by and a metalled road leading up to a radar installation is only just on the other side of the hill.

Meteors WA791 and VZ518

At 9:15am on Thursday 12th April 1951 a flight of four Meteor jet aircraft took off from RAF Linton-on-Ouse near York for a training flight. Flying the lead pair were Flight Lieutenant David Merryweather Leach (WA791) and Flying Officer Tony Hauxwell (VZ518). The flight was to climb to around 30,000ft where the two pairs would carry out attacks on each other.

The weather forecast for the day was for complete cloud cover from 1,500ft to 20,000ft, but on reaching 30,000ft the four aircraft were still in thick cloud and radioed Linton on Ouse to inform them that the flight would be returning home. All four aircraft turned back towards Linton-on-Ouse, though after having descended back through 20,000ft Flt Lt Leach reported he could see what he thought was Leeds through a break in the cloud and he and F/O Hauxwell were going to proceed down. The second pair could not see through the cloud and not being entirely sure of their position radioed their intention to remain at 20,000ft. After some 5 minutes the lead pilot of the second pair, Flying Officer Leslie Hayward, attempted to contact Flt Lt Leach with no success. RAF Northern Radar at Lindholme near Doncaster attempted to contact the pair again with no success.

Following this a search was mounted with wreckage being spotted later in the day with a ground team reaching the scene the following afternoon. The two aircraft had continued to descend through cloud and without ever breaking out of the bottom of the overcast and had flown into the top of the moor in formation. The marks left by the two aircraft are still clearly visible.

The pilots who were both killed were

F/O Anthony H. Hauxwell		VZ518
Flt. David M. Leach		WA791