Gloster Meteor Crash List

When I was trying to solve this.. I found reference in a book to the

“Gloustershire Meteor”

I could be worse, like the Lancashire Buccanear

25.4.53 Meteor F.8 WF747 600 Sqn at Chelsfield, Kent. Lost hood and ejector seat operated; dived into ground 1 killed

The Times, Monday, Apr 27, 1953; pg. 3; Issue 52606; col D

A Royal Air Force jet Meteor fighter from Biggin Hill crashed near Chelsfield Kent, on Saturday, having flown on after the pilot
had bailed out. The body of the pilot was found in the ejector seat of the aircraft seven miles away

Paul – My sincere thanks for such a magnificent and prompt piece of detective work!
THUNDERBIRD 167 – Thank you also for the additional link.
Many Thanks
Best Regards
Keith (OG)

Looks like PM has answered your query beautifully, but there is also a really good online resource for British service aircraft losses usually with a short description of the event. I can’t find it at mo, but believe it’s related to ‘Demobbed’ etc.

I have got a book called Meteor Eject! by Nick Carter.

It has details of all the Meteor crashes, seem to remember it was around 900:eek:

http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=20677

A bit more about it here

25.4.53 Meteor F.8 WF747 600 Sqn at Chelsfield, Kent. Lost hood and ejector seat operated; dived into ground 1 killed

The Times, Monday, Apr 27, 1953; pg. 3; Issue 52606; col D

A Royal Air Force jet Meteor fighter from Biggin Hill crashed near Chelsfield Kent, on Saturday, having flown on after the pilot
had bailed out. The body of the pilot was found in the ejector seat of the aircraft seven miles away

Armed Forces Memorial

http://www.veterans-uk.info/afm/

The roll of honour – Personal details
Surname
MUNTZ

Forenames/Initials
Colin Lee Irving

Rank
Fg Off

Service
Royal Air Force

Service Number
3129265

Station
RAF Biggin Hill

Date of Birth
23 March 1929

Age
24

Date of Death
25 April 1953

Cemetery Name
Biggin Hill Cemetery

Cemetery Address
Kent

Grave Number
189

Included on Armed Forces Memorial
Yes

Included on Roll of Honour
Yes

Colin L I Muntz Born London 1929

re: his father

Frederick Alan Irving ‘Alan’ Muntz died March 7th 1985

In his Obit, it says “His only son as killed flying a Meteor jet shortly after the last war”

That means he was 16 when that photo of him was taken, that was printed in Flight.. He got his Aero Cert in 1950, (aged 21) so we are looking for an accident after 1949… If anyone can pull a death year for him, it will narrow it down

If it’s an ejection seat problem then I guess Meteor F8…

Or if you have a date for a particular incident then put a question on here!

Paul – Well I don’t have the date but here’s hoping! I am trying to find out the aircraft serial and the date of the accident which killed the son of one of the Airwork founders. His name was Colin Muntz (Father was Alan Muntz) and his half sister tells me that she thinks it was a malfunction with an ejector seat while he was in a Gloster Meteor. She has no other details other than it was maybe 1950. However if you put his name in the Flight Archive in 1988 it shows a picture of him and mentions he was killed in an RAF Meteor 2 or 3 years after the photo was taken (1946). The other thing she did say was that he had left the RAF and she thought he was working for De Havilland.
I was staggered to read that there were so many Meteor accidents (890 losses).

Best Regards
OG

Or if you have a date for a particular incident then put a question on here!

Colin Cummings series of books on RAF Losses should cover this

Such as

The Price of Peace: A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses Between VE-Day and End of 1945
Final Landings: A Summary of RAF Aircraft Accidents and Combat Losses 1946 to 1949
Last Take-off: A Record of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953
Category Five: A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009

Tweaked the title slightly in case anyone worries about a recent accident…