Meteor F.3 EE490 near Scorborough.
Prior to this flight on 13th September 1946 and as he walked to the aircraft this pilot discussed the record breaking high speed flight undertaken at Tangmere in May 1946 flown by G/Cpt Donaldson in Meteor EE549 and that he thought the all-out speed of Meteor EE490 could be about 460-480 MPH but that provided he could get height he hoped to attain at least 550 MPH. What then became the pilot of Meteor EE490 on this day in September 1946 was an officer at the Central Gunnery School at Leconfield. Once at the aircraft he undertook a very detailed examination of all the panels and control surfaces, going down on his hands and knees and also ordering an airman to work the controls whilst he checked their functionality. He then took off from Leconfield at 14.45hrs for what was described as a self-authorised test flight following a minor inspection that had been completed. A short time after taking off the Meteor appeared over the airfield flying from the South, in a shallow dive at low level and flying very fast. Close to the northern boundary of the airfield it began a gradual climb, then once at around 1000 feet above the ground it began to roll to the right until it was inverted. The nose was seen to drop and it disintergrated in the air with wreckage being scattered over an area of farmland around to the north of the airfield around Lickham Hall Farm, Scorborough roughly on a south to north line over four fields close to the railway line. Farm buildings were also damaged. It was thought probable that the pilot was flying the aircraft at a speed beyond which it was designed and it broke up in the air. Whether the roll was the result of some form of failure or that the pilot had intentionally attempted to roll it was not clear. Once inverted the stresses on the airframe were too great and it disintergrated. This was the first fatal jet crash in Yorkshire.
Pilot - S/Ldr Eric Percy William Bocock DFC RAF (61215), aged 27. Buried Leconfield Churchyard, Yorkshire.
Eric Bocock's family were from the Bury St.Edmunds area of Suffolk. After enlisting for RAF service he trained at 58 O.T.U. before receiving a commission in January 1941 and being posted to 72 Squadron soon after. He later served with 602 Squadron, being awarded the DFC for service with them, Gazetted on 10th April 1942. The citation stated "Since July, 1941, this officer has participated in many operational sorties. Throughout, he has displayed courage, initiative and great energy. He has destroyed at least three enemy aircraft, two of which he shot down on one sortie." He later served in 234 Squadron before joining 54 Squadron then 549 Squadron in No.1 Fighter Wing flying Spitfires in Australia, the latter a squadron he commanded. While with 549 Squadron on 27th November 1944 he took part in the longest Spitfire operational sortie when he escorted USAAF B25's to Timor in the Dutch East Indies, he flew Spitfire A58-341 on this flight. By the end of July 1945 it was the end of what became known as the "Churchill Wing" for the Spitfires and all were posted back to the UK. In 1946 he was posted to Leconfield and became the Central Gunnery School's chief ground instructor. He is pictured in the centre of the back row in this 549 Squadron group photograph (shown below).
On 31st May 1946 his son Neil tragically drowned close to the family home in the airfield's married quarters while his mother had briefly left him to get his coat. His father and others began to search for his son and as part of this an appeal was broadcast on the airfield's tannoy. Another airman heard the appeal and reported that a child had been struck and killed by a bus on the main Driffield to Beverley road. S/Ldr Bocock went to the scene at Lockington crossroads to discover that this was not his son and was seven year old Sylvia Dixon. The search for his son was continued and the boy's body found a short time later close to his home in a poorly fenced sunken static water tank near the airfield's church. He and his son are buried in the same grave. They had an older son and his wife was also pregnant at the time of his death.
