Meteor T.7 WA720 near Barnard Castle.

During the morning of Tuesday, 20th November 1951 this 205 Advanced Flying School aircraft was being flown on an aerobatics training exercise over the area to the west of where it was based at Middleton St.George. During the exercise the pupil pilot flew a loop and attempted to roll off the top of it but the aircraft did not have enough airspeed and it stalled, then entered an inverted spin. The instructor took over control but could not regain control so both pilots abandoned the aircraft. The aircraft went on to crash at 08.40hrs at Cross Lanes a few miles south of Barnard Castle. The instructor had an interesting landing when he landed by parachute on a cow at Sledgwick Hall and broke his arm. The pupil landed at Highcliffe Farm, Winston and was unhurt. The crash made a crater in the field near to the A66 road and the site may well be now under a road junction upgrade to the A66 in more recent years. It crashed very close to Spitfire BL500 that came down on 1st March 1942.

Instructor Pilot - F/O H Williams RAF (Possibly F/O Hugh Williams RAF (S.No.?)). Injured.

Pupil Pilot - P/O Peter John Poppe RAF (2472120).

F/Lt Peter Poppe was killed on 8th November 1965 in Singapore in the crash of 64 Squadron Javelin XH959 near RAF Changi. He is buried at Kranji Military Cemetery.
On 10th July 1951 the oil tank filler cap of Meteor WA720 detached in flight owing to careless maintenance by two members of ground staff. Both received fourteen days detention for their errors.

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