RAF Meteor 8 in flight explosion 1956?
 

I am trying to find out what the official findings/verdict was on a Meteor Mk8 which exploded over Filey Golf Course; the many parts crash landed for the most part in the boating lake at Butlins Holiday Camp Filey. I witnessed this event, but for the life of me I cannot remember the year....it was August as best I can remember and despite the jet exploding and the location of its crash no one apart from the poor Pilot was killed. Does anyone have any info that can help me, please ?

If this entry in Broken Wings is the one you are looking for, it sounds more like a disintegration than an explosion.

18/8/53: Meteor F8: WE964: 66 Sqd.: 1/2ml S of Filey, Yorks: Tail broke off in a tail chase: (1 fatal)

RAF Meteor Mk 8 "Disintegration", Filey .
 

Dear Mr. Crun, Many thanks for your reply to my query. I would not have believed 1953, but everything else (for the most part) is correct so I'm sure you are right in your answer. For that I thank you.
It leaves some questions though. I witnessed the incident from the moment the aircraft passed by the Filey GC clubhouse about 500', not travelling at a great rate of knots, in level flight save for climbing gently as it went south........only to explode in a orange black mass .There was neither sight nor sound of any other aircraft .......so you can imagine my surprise that the Meteor broke apart as in a structural failure. The explosion was as if it had been hit by a SAM!! Official Board of Inquiry ? Intriguing aint it.
Give my regards to Minnie.
Regards,
Voyeur

Broken Wings
 

......Just curious. Is Broken Wings an accessable website? Didn't show up on Google.

"Broken Wings"-James J Halley MBE Air Britain ISBN 0 81530 290 4 1999.
Available from the Air Britain web-site.

http://www.air-britain.com/

Thanks for the link..........that's useful.

Voyeur: Sometimes when breakups happen they do so in the twinkling of an eye.

I once watched a Meteor 8 disintegrate at an air display, and if I had been asked for the sequence of events I would have said "it broke into pieces instantaneously", it was almost like an explosion.

The BOI established that it had suffered a double mainplane failure at, or close to, the wing root; the wings then broke into many other smaller pieces; this was followed by the separation of the rear fuselage, which then broke up pieces due the unnatural loads imposed on it.

Quite a lot of Meteors broke up in midair because of the excess loads imposed on them, either cumulative or instantaneous, we had no G meters in those days.

... I remember an old Meatbox pilot once telling me that when accelerometers first arrived on the aircraft - they did so before the g-limits arrived...

...so of course every red-blooded fighter pilot went off to see what he could clock on his! :E

You Live and Learn !
 

Dear Mr. Crun,

I must accept what you say re. dis-integration of the Meteor 8. It certainly did not look like that at the time.....one instant a whole aircraft the next a yellow black and orange cloud and flying debris.
Prior to joining PPRuNe I had believed that the Meteor was a relatively safe aircraft; if any aircraft can be safe.
Anyway, as I said, Thank You for your help. It is greatly appreciated.
Best wishes......and to Minnie.

Voyeur

"Best wishes......and to Minnie."
Shhhhh....................They're not yet married you know.
The scandal......

Voyeur: A safe aircraft ? 1953, the year you witnessed the breakup of WE964 was no different from other years around that time.

144 Meteors destroyed with the loss of 84 crew, mostly pilots; quite a lot of those suffered in flight structural failure of one description or another.
There were many more damaged and repaired.

I believe one broke up and crashed at Westcliff on Sea, near Southend,
Essex in the 1950s.

I wonder if anyone has any info on that.

From Broken Wings.
10/9/51: Meteor F8: VZ510: 263 Sqn: Westfield Park Drive, Westcliffe-on-Sea, Essex: Broke up in air on test flight: 4 fatal. (pilot and 3 on the ground)

Mr Crun,

QUOTE
144 Meteors destroyed with the loss of 84 crew, mostly pilots [in 1953]
UNQUOTE

That statistic interests me. Where did you get it? I ask because I'd like to have similar data on other types over the years, and I imagine the same source would provide them.

Davaar: The info is from Broken Wings, by Air-Britain, isbn 0 81530 290 4.
My copy covers from 1945-1999, all RAF types, and only those accidents which resulted in loss of the aircraft.

The 144/44 numbers are from a quick count, and may not be accurate, but I think they are pretty close.

It is sobering reading for those of us who flew in that period.

Thanks for that info Henry. Love to Minnie. Haven't heard you much
on the Home Service lately!

Thank you, henry. Does not surprise me. I recall being told that no matter what we had heard about the ..................., it was not true. I had not heard anything about the ...................., but I began to wonder; and since then, seeing how many went in, I have continued to wonder.

Davaar: Here are a few more stats from the bad years.

1953 all types, 486 lost, 334 fatalities.
1954 all types, 453 lost, 282 fatalities.
1955 all types, 306 lost, 177 fatalities.
1956 all types, 272 lost, 150 fatalities.

I havn't totalled 1945-1952, but they look as bad if not worse.

Post 1957 the numbers tapered off quite sharply because of the Duncan Sandys defence white paper

Mr.Davaar don't wonder about the facts they are true. I was a QFI at a Meteor/Vampire AFS during those years and on average we lost a student every three weeks. That was just one AFS.

RAF Post War Accident statistics
 

May I take the liberty of posting a link to a thread I started a long time ago and which generated a lot of comment and interest on these matters raised here?
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=70987
I too was staggered by the post-war loss rates! Fair to say that many a/c were assessed as Cat 5 as it was easier to get a new one from an MU than spend time and money repairing a broken one. The aircrew attrition rate was truly awful though - over 600 in 1946 if I recall correectly!