Meteor crash 1950's, Harpenden.

I hope you don’t mind , if this works 

The pilot was my Mum’s brother whom I never knew as I wasn’t born at the time. The attached newspaper cutting which I think is from the Shields Gazette is my understanding of what happened

The enquiry could of course from the engine  impact craters have an idea of the angle it hit the ground, and from debris scatter. I have not seen the original detailed report which is no longer available. The aircraft didn’t ‘drop out of the sky’, it was   a shallow rate of descent with engines running.I was a Mk 4, no ejection seats. No radio contact was made after the turn  made at 30,000 feet , but 3 routine calls were made up to that point. The comment about a farm worker in Sandridge finding a 2ft by 4ft part is strange, the aircraft was approaching from Hemel Hempstead direction. If indeed it was a Meteor item  I do wonder if somebody removed it from the crash area but then decided to dump it- people were taking ‘souvenirs’ immediately after the crash. Ghoulish but it happened. It was a very calm day in early September, the aircrafts path was steady, I think there are two possibilities as to the reason it crashed. Loss of consciousness is one, if the pilot was unconscious that would explain the lack of radio contact after the turn. 

With apologies for the huge lapse in time… I too am puzzled by the divergence in reported angle of descent. The sound I heard was consistent with a shallow rate of descent, but a much steeper angle is also reported immediately before impact. It would be interesting to know the result of the enquiry. The shape of the crater would have reflected the angle but the information given in this thread does seem to suggest that wreckage was scattered all around the impact point suggesting that the angle must have steepened. I wonder if the reference to ‘bomb bay doors’ (which of course the Meteor does not have) was actually a sighting of the inner undercarriage doors being down preparatory to putting the landing gear down?
I realise of course that our perceptions of the same event can vary quite widely but there may well be a logical fusion of the two – which the inquiry may have discovered.
Is this accessible to the public?

Anson

I can’t understand the references suggesting ‘falling out of the sky’. My friend and I were in line with its descent path which was a shallow dive – certainly not falling vertically.It was stable in flight, and engines sounding normal.We first saw it half a mile from the impact site as it flew over us and we quickly went to the crash site arriving about 10 minutes after impact.

meteor plane crash harpenden 3 sept 1953.

I to remember this plane crash,i was 10 years old at the time living at 17 meadway harpenden this was then the last house in the road and beyond that open fields until hetts farm,when we were boys this was our playground. i was no more than a quarter of a mile away when i saw the jet crash ,it came down almost vertically at great speed,a huge explosion and a great shower of earth skywards followed by smoke, then silence,very frightening.Iwas at the scene within 10 minutes,it had come down in a field leaving a crater 20ft deep and just as wide hitting a tree as it did so.there was not much to see in the crater but the field was littered with debris and human remains,there was also a herd of black bullocks stampeding round i think a horse was involoved to. after time more people arrived as well as police we were told to leave i cannot remember anyone taking souvenirs it was to gory for that, i to was told the tale of the pilots head by some lads but i think this was just bravado . I have thought of this many times over the years and our thoughts must go to the pilot and his family it was probably not his fault as this was in the early days of jet aircraft

Harpenden Plane Crash

Plane crash
10:27 – 15 January 2009- It was with great interest that I read Mr Ian Leckie’s letter (Herts Advertiser, December 11) concerning the dramatic aeroplane crash at Hett’s Farm, Harpenden (now Aldwickbury Park Golf Club), in the early 1950s. My interest is in the fact that the “eye-witness” referred to in Mr Leckie’s letter was myself and behind which lies another tale.

In the afternoon when the crash occurred – at that time I was 13 or 14 years of age – I was in the back garden of my parents’ home in Highfield Avenue, happily cleaning my shoes in readiness for a few days’ holiday in the Cheshire countryside at an aunt and uncle’s home. It was a somewhat sultry, cloudy day and my first impression of the imminent occurrence was a distant high-pitched whine of the aircraft which rapidly became louder, followed by it bursting through the clouds in an all but vertical dive.

I recollect the air seeming to pressurise immediately before its impact with earth, the windows of our house rattled loudly, followed by a huge explosion and a cloud of black smoke rising skywards – this all being only some quarter-of-a-mile from where I stood. I think I was somewhat traumatised at the time.

However, as boys of my age at that time would do, I leapt upon my bicycle along with a pal who lived opposite and we pedalled with much gusto to the fateful scene, being the first to arrive. Flinging our bikes against the fence to the field, we ran over to the smoking crater where we saw the metal bracelet from the pilot’s wrist watch referred to in Mr Leckie’s letter. I remember we saw a trace of blood and skin on the bracelet, which made a great impression on us at our age.

Later on the same afternoon we were able to return to the field edge when the emergency services and authorities had departed, leaving a local police constable on duty. I met at that time three other boys of similar age to myself, all of whom disagreed with my identification of the aeroplane as a Meteor jet. The policeman took note of this and requested all of our names and addresses.

I now come to the little twist in my tale. The following day I departed for my “holiday” in Cheshire away from home and my parents. About a week or so later, my uncle received a telephone call from my father saying I was required to attend the inquest into the incident as I had correctly identified the aeroplane. This resulted in my stay with my relatives being shortened and a promised trip with them to see the Blackpool illuminations being missed, much to my disappointment. I have yet to see this highlight of one of England’s premier holiday resorts!

COLIN RATCLIFFE,

Anson

I know a bit about this.The aircraft was on a maximum rate descent exercise out of Oakington.The aircraft flew to 30,000 feet, made the turn over Bovingdon after which contact was lost.3 routine RT calls had been received up to that time.The aircraft crashed at high speed into the ground. Engines were running normally, and the aircraft was stable in a shallow dive consistent with its maximum rate descent exercise.The likelihood is that the pilot had lost consciousness a short time after making the turn.The exact reason is unknown.I cannot understand the reference earlier to ‘bomb-bay doors’.In a maximum rate descent exercise the aircraft would of course have rapidly lost height .As it approached Harpenden from a SSW direction heading towards Oakington it was in a controlled shallow dive so it had come out of its rapid rate descent phase and appeared to be heading back to base. The F4 did not have ejection seats, unlike the F8.

Harpenden Meteor

This one takes me back.
I was living at the time in Birch Way Harpenden about half a mile from the crash site. I didn’t get to see it although I was fairly sure it had been a crash somewhere on the East side of Aldwickbury private school. I only heard at school a couple of days later that it had indeed been a crash and that it was a meteor. Word was that the pilot stayed with his machine to steer it clear of the houses, but from my recollection of the sound and the speed it was going I wouldn’t be too confident of his surviving an ejection. There was also a grisly report that one of the kids first at the crash site had kicked the helmet of the pilot around like a football to find the head still in it! Such are young boys!
All I heard was a jet aircraft obviously flying Eastwards low and fast probably roughly parallel to Piggots Hill Lane, but by the time I got outside all was silent.

But bomb-bay doors? You’re not thinking of the Canberra that went down at Jersey Farm St. Albans soon after are you? I was a mile away from that one too as it crashed close to the school playing field. Jersey Farm is now a huge housing estate so the Canberra crash site is no more. Somebody must have found plenty of wreckage from both though surely. Small boys can’t have spirited it all away!?

In case anybody is getting the impression that I was developing a kind of Jinx on aircraft I am pleased to announce those are the only two!

From the book ‘Last take-off’ by Colin Cummings

3 sept 1953 RA475 Meteor F4 206 AFS Aldwick Herts

The aircraft dived into ground but cause is not known.

Pilot Officer john Coupland 24

I lived in the area of St. Albans at that time, but don’t recall the incident. I wonder if it relates to a Radlett-built E.E. Canberra B.2 (WJ622) that crashed during a local test flight – this may account for the ‘bomb bay’ doors mentioned. No doubt someone out there has the answer.

The coroner seems to have got some details wrong: I doubt that the accident was due to the Meteor’s “bomb-bay” door not being “properly secured before take-off”.
It is interesting though that no wreckage, apart from that, or remains were found.
It would indeed be good to know if anything ever turned up.

Laurence