Very little is known about this incident prior to the accident. At around 10.30hrs on 21st November 1952 this 215 Advanced Flying School aircraft dived into a small island at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Trent called Whitton Island and exploded. The Humber begins where the Ouse and Trent converge and the waters are tidal. The aircraft crashed into mud that was between six and twelve feet below the water at the time though the tide appears to have been going out at the time. The crash was heard and seen by people in the locality of Faxfleet and Weighton Lock. Two policemen (Constables Ronald Taylor and Eric Mason) and a Weighton Lock's lockkeeper (Tom Henderson) went to look for the pilot but to get to the island that had to carry a small boat from the canal side of the lock onto the river and row across. It took some time to get the boat to the river side and then row across but from their boat they could see parachute cords. They then had to leave the boat to follow the cords toward what they then discovered was the body of the pilot. In doing so they then became briefly stuck in the mud. The tide then appears to have receded, their boat then got stranded and they became marooned.
While this was ongoing the Meteor must have been recorded as missing so a search from the air was undertaken. A Chipmunk flown by F/Lt Ben Kilvington RAF (150322) with Cadet Pilot Maxwell Alan Hundleby RAF (2608712) from Brough-based Hull University Air Squadron was used in the search. Others were probably used from Finningley and newspaper reports made mention to one of the search aircraft being damaged when it later returned to it's home airfield and landed. The crash site on Whitton Island must have been spotted from the air because other emergency services then began to make their way to Weighton Lock. Getting across the water was a major problem for everyone. A Tiger Moth from Leconfield was used to drop a message to the three stranded men stating help was coming. Eventually, three and a half hours after they became stuck, it was three Humber Conservancy Board bankmen, Fred Reed, Arthur Tomlinson and Charles Dunning who carried a rowing boat from the canal, over the lock to the river and rescued the three marooned men. The pilot's body was later recovered, or recovered in part, and buried at Finningley.
Pilot - S/Ldr Ernest Edge RAF (49634), aged 33. Buried Finningley Churchyard, Yorkshire.
Ernest Edge had received a commission way back in 1942.