Meteor F.8 VZ453 near Knapton.

In the first few days of January 1952 92 Squadron received several new pilots fresh from training with 226 Operational Conversion Unit at Stradishall. On 7th January 1952 two of the pilots were undertaking training flights at Linton on Ouse when their aircraft collided. Meteor VZ453 collided with Meteor WA759 roughly over Linton on Ouse airfield with one aircraft joining the circuit and one was flying an overshoot of the airfield. WA759 would crash immediately close to the airfield and the pilot was killed. VZ453 sustained a badly damaged starboard wing and it also left the pilot with no starboard aileron control of the aircraft. He was able to keep some degree of control and after flying in circles for a time eventually made a forced landing in fields off Moor Lane, Knapton. It ran through hedges and came to rest in a waterlogged field behind near Golden Farm. The site may have been destroyed by the more modern A1237 York Ring-Road just to the west of the village.

Pilot - P/O Anthony Robert Wardell RAF (4038405).

F/O Wardell was posted to the Central Flying School in April 1954 and was killed on 9th March 1955 while flying CFS Meteor WH200 in a crash near Broadwell airfield. He was twenty four years old.

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