Date:	Friday 4 January 1952
Time:	day
Type:	Gloster Meteor F Mk III
Owner/operator:	206 AFS RAF
Registration:	EE332
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Melbourn, Cambridgeshire. England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Oakington, Cambridgeshire
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor F.Mk.3 EE332, 206 AFS (Advanced Flying School), RAF Oakington, Cambridgeshire. Written off (destroyed) 4/1/1952 when crashed at Melbourn, Cambridgeshire. The aircraft was seen to approach the village of Melbourn, at high speed and in a shallow dive. Over the centre of the village, the aircraft began a banked turn to starboard, but was then seen to roll onto its back, and then break apart in flight. The pilot was thrown from the aircraft, and was killed.

Crew of Meteor EE332:
Pilot Officer (2479001) Alan Trevor Garrett SMITH (pilot) RAF - killed. Died on arrival at Royston Hospital, Royston, Hertfordshire

According to a contemporary nespaper report ("Ely Standard" 5 January 1952):

"An R.A.F. Meteor jet fighter crashed near Melbourn and wreckage was spread over a wide area. The pilot died on arrival at Royston Hospital after bailing out. A farm worker, Mr Stanley Wing, who was working on a stack near the crash received a fright when an engine whistled past him to bury itself in the ground nearby. Villagers in Melbourn reported that bits of the wreckage landed in the streets and on houses. There was, however, no fire".

The village of Melbourn, where the crash happened, is a large, clustered village in the far south-west of Cambridgeshire, England at approximate co ordinates 52°04′55″N 0°01′14″E. Its traditional high street is bypassed by the A10, intersecting the settlement's other main axis exactly 3 miles (4.8 km) northwest of the traditional focal point of Royston, Hertfordshire, the nearest large settlement.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.123 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft DA100-EZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain)
3. Last Take Off; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p.210
4. Ely Standard 5 January 1952/https://archive.org/stream/CambridgeshireAviationScrapbook1897To1990.doc
5. 206 AFS ORB (Operational Record Book)(Air Ministry File AM/F,540) for the period 1/10/1951 to 31/5/1954: National Archives (PRO Kew) file AIR 29/2146/1 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7162860
6. http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?9765-Meteor-losses-at-206-AFS-RAF-Oakington-1951-to-January-1953

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
21-Feb-2021 00:18	Dr. John Smith	Added
21-Feb-2021 11:05	Heil	Updated [Operator, Location, Nature, Narrative, Operator]