During the night of Saturday, 19th July 1952 the crew of two 228 Operational Conversion Unit Meteors were detailed to undertake practice interception under Ground Controller Interception guidance with the ground controller being based at Leeming airfield. The two aircraft were Meteor WD713 with P/O Donald Elphick RAF (3507716) as pilot and P/O Keith Duncan Saunders RAF (4046200) as navigator and Meteor WD716 with P/O Brian Hamilton RAF (3129683) as pilot and Sgt Desmond Sturgess RAF (3504412) as navigator. WD716 took off from Leeming ahead of WD713 at 23.11hrs and both aircraft climbed to 16,000 feet. The crew of WD713 intially acted as a target aircraft and the crew of WD716 homed in on it with the help from the ground interception controller. After the crew of WD716 successfully made two homing contacts the two crews switched rolls. The crew of WD713 began to home in on WD716 and made an initial contact but lost it after making a turn, the crew of WD713 requested more help from the ground controller. At 23.45hrs the ground controller plotted that WD716 was roughly over Malton, he contacted WD716 but the pilot of which then replied to state that the fuel gauges were showing empty despite stating that he knew the tanks were full when they took off. The pilot of WD716 then asked for a course to turn that would take him to the nearest airfield. By now WD716 was plotted to be over Brompton, between Pickering and Scarborough, the reply gave him a course and distance to Leeming. Instead of making that turn the WD716 then made a turn towards North. While still at a height of 15,000 feet the crew of WD713 believed that they then briefly established contact with WD716, briefly seeing a tail navigation light, but as they turned towards it they again lost sight of the light. At around 23.45hrs the engines of Meteor WD716 failed at 16,000 feet and the pilot began to glide loosing height. The aircraft continued roughly north loosing height. After flying out to sea off Saltwick Nab it was ditched in Saltwick Bay at 23.54hrs after it turned back towards land. The pilot appears to have been injured during the ditching but left the aircraft, sadly he did not survive and drowned. The following day a search operation was put into effect for the two airmen. The body of the pilot was initially spotted crew on the oil tanker S/S Rudderman. This information was signalled to and the body was then recovered by HMS Bernicia and passed on to the Whitby lifeboat to be brought ashore at Whitby. No trace of the missing navigator was found.

A detailed investigation as to what happened was carried out. The scene of the ditching was visited by the members of the court of inquiry on 22nd July 1952 and the aircraft was visibly seen in one piece underwater with no apparently damage when viewed from above in five feet of water at low tide. The aircraft was salvaged by the RAF salvage vessel "Airmoor" and was then inspected by members of the court of inquiry on 5th August 1952 in Whitby harbour but was infact considerably damaged. The investigation found that the pilot had taken off without his oxygen tube and had probably flown without oxygen for the whole of this flight. It was stated that mild anoxia would have effected his reactions and thinking. The aircraft's engines were found to have failed because the main fuel tanks that supplied them had run dry and that fuel in other tanks was not transferred to them. The fuel cock switch was not selected to the wing or ventral tanks those should have been used before the main tanks were switched to. The cockpit canopy from Meteor WD716 was found jettisoned around five miles South-East of Whitby on land near Smails Moor Farm, north of Robin Hoods Bay. Purely for this reason have I chosen to create a webpage for this incident. No trace of the navigator was ever found and it was thought probable that he left the aircraft soon after he had jettisoned the canopy because a compass instrument was found broken with the indicator found pointing to North. This compass could only have received the damage it did being struck by the airmen as he exited the aircraft. His parachute had almost certainly caused him to drift out to sea. The accident records mention the weather conditions and describe a strong westerly wind blowing that increased gradually with height. During the ditching of the aircraft it was thought that the pilot injured his right eye on the starboard windscreen panel heater switch but this did not prevent him from leaving the aircraft. He released his parachute and dinghy and then possibly attempted to swim ashore but may have become unconcious and sadly drowned before making it.

Pilot - P/O Brian Hamilton RAF (3129683), aged 20, of Northwood, Middlesex. Buried Leeming Churchyard, Yorkshire.

Navigator - Sgt Desmond Reginald Sturgess RAF (3504412), aged 21. Missing.

Brain Hamilton's grave at Leeming Churchyard. He was born on 17th July 1932 in Middlesex. He was a National Service pilot. Following training at No.8 A.F.T.S. at Dalcross he was granted a commission to the rank of P/O (national service) on 14th November 1951. He had then trained at 206 A.F.S. at Oakington. He was the pilot of another Meteor that was damaged on landing recently before this fatal accident.

Desmond Sturgess was born on 29th July 1930 at Newbury, Berkshire and was the son of Reginald and Mary Elizabeth (nee Miles) Sturgess.