On the 27th October 1952 the pilot of this No.205 Advanced Flying School 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. Retired local farmer Mr William Wood recalled this incident crash very vividly to me when I visited him in June 2003 in Helmsley. 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.
Meteor VW268 was built to contract 6/ACFT/1389 by the Gloster Aircraft Co. Ltd. and was delivered to the RAF in January 1949. 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 accident on 27th October 1952. Cat.5/FA(Burnt) damage was the damage assessment recorded.
Pilot - P/O John Michael Dill RAF (2521918), aged 19. Of Stratford, Mancaster. Buried Southern Cemetery, Manchester (Sect.I. Grave.394).
The red dot roughly marks where the Meteor crashed, photo taken from the opposite side of Bilsdale.
My thanks to Mr William Wood (formerly of Laskill) for recounting his memories of this crash. I assume that he has since passed away.
John Dill was born on 25th February 1933 at Barton, Lancashire and was the son of Harry and Nellie C (nee Leeming) Dill. 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.
