Meteor VT138 third from the camera taken while it was serving with 66 Squadron and carrying the code "LZ-F".
During the afternoon of Tuesday, 21st July 1953 the pilot of this 215 Advanced Flying School aircraft was undertaking a training flight with him detailed to land at Linton on Ouse airfield as part of this flight. The pilot contacted Linton on Ouse control but was refused a Ground Controlled Approach (GCA) landing by them as they were already directing another aircraft in to land. The pilot of VT138 was given a course to steer and a height of 3000 feet maintain because of high ground in the area he was to be directed over. A few minutes later he again contacted Linton to say he was flying in cloud and requested another GCA, again he was given a course to steer and a height to maintain. This was not acknowledged and at around 16.00hrs the aircraft was seen to dive towards the ground west of Masham. The wreckage was found after a long search on Arnagill Moor with the body of the pilot found nearby. The remains of two fuel drop-tanks the aircraft was carrying were later found about a mile away from the main aircraft crash site and it was never understood why they were released. A large crater was created as a result of aircraft diving into the ground, little remains at the site today as the hole appears to have been back-filled in a good clear-up operation carried by the RAF.
Pilot - P/O Denis Arthur Sharp RAF (2542237), aged 23, of Washington, Co.Durham. Burial location unknown.
I located the area of the crash site in February 2006 though I found very little, only a few scraps of metal appear to bear witness to the accident. After this first visit I obtained a copy of newspaper reports documenting this incident, they refer to a large impact crater being created and wreckage being scattered over a wide area. Either this crater had been filled in or on my first visit I had not located the actual crash site but just part of a wreckage scatter. I returned to the crash site on the weekend prior to the 60th anniversary of the accident and the area where I discovered a few scraps of the aircraft in 2006. This area was now covered in deep heather and I failed to find anything else. I attempted to find where a filled-on crater may have been on the moor going on the theory that it would have been filled in with stone (probably the underlaying bedrock from a local moorland quarry), if it was not topped off with peat it would be doubtful if the natural plant life would recover. I did not find any such area.
I would welcome any information from anyone who can suggest a more accurate location for where the aircraft specifically crashed. The newspaper reports at the time stated that the crash site took a reasonably long time to locate and given the long daylight hours this seems strange if it crashed on open moorland, aircraft were used in the search process and I can't see why it would have taken so long to spot. One other theory I have given the lack of back-filled crater on the moorland and tiny fragments in the area I searched; could the aircraft have crashed slightly away from my area and the bits I found been the result of the explosion. My area is close to the top of a line of crags, I perhaps need to be heading down to the foot of the crags for a fresh search. This lower area would be a more hidden crash location for the site not to have been spotted at the time of the accident. It is very over-grown.
The items I located in 2006 were found on the surface in the area shown in the foreground of this photograph.
More infact remains on the surface of where the two drop tanks landed, one was found in the 1970s by air historian Mr Graham Sharpe and the largest of the section of this has moved around in the last thirty years but is still in the rough area of where it believed to struck the ground. The other tank was located by historian Mr Ken Reast by talking to local people. Again the largest of the pieces has probably migrated from the initial impact point but it's still in the general area. Photographs of the largest sections of each tank are shown below.
The photograph above shows part of one of the tanks located by Mr Reast.
The photographs above shows part of the second tank located by Mr Sharpe, some of the stencilling on this was still readable in 2006. The words "Aircraft" and "Meteor" were seen on it but do not show up too well on this photograph shown below. By the time I had returned to the site in 2013 the stencilling had faded away. The lower photograph has been heavily modified on Photoshop to bring out the writing.
Denis Sharp was born on 29th March 1930 almost certainly in the Chester-le-Street area of Co.Durham. He was a national service pilot receiving a commission to the rank of Acting P/O on probation on 2nd July 1952 and being confirmed in the rank of P/O on 6th May 1953. Nothing more is known about him.
