Sorry Danny,
Dragged a garbled reference out of the old grey matter should have Yahooed first. It wasn't son but twin brother Air Vice Marshal David Francis William Atcherley CB CBE DSO DFC (12 January 1904 – 8 June 1952).
I quote wiki :- "In June 1952, Atcherley was lost at sea, presumed dead whilst piloting a Meteor jet fighter
PR Mk.10 ( from No. 13 Squadron). Taking off from RAF Fayid in Egypt at 8:00 am for a 40-minute flight to Nicosia in Cyprus, his aircraft never arrived at Nicosia, and no radio message was received. No trace of Atcherley or his aircraft was ever found despite an extensive air-sea search being carried out by RAF, Israeli, Turkish and USAF aircraft."
It was our instructors view that the search was carried out at too greater an altitude, whether or not this was an official view at the time I do not know but Sir Richard was AOC FTC at the time.