Meteor VT120.
On the 11th of December 1950 a Meteor practicing aerobatics on a training flight ran out of fuel after becoming lost in the poor weather near Whitby. The pilot made a forced belly landing near High Quebec Farm, Sleights. He survived. The aircraft was written off with Cat 4 damage. After making the landing the pilot walked down to Quebec Farm, where the owner met him and gave him a cup of tea! The pilot then asked where the nearest Police station was and walked down to Sleights to it, leaving his parachute and Mae West at the house. The pilot later returned with police who put a guard on the aircraft. The pilot was taken to Whitby and he made his own way back to Middleton St George on the train.
The aircraft was built to contract 6/ACFT/658 by the Gloster Aircraft Co. Ltd at Hucclecote. It was delivered to the RAF in April 1948 and after acceptance it was issued to 92 Sqdn at Duxford who were converting from Meteor F.3's in May 1948. It transferred on an unspecified date to 226 OCU at Bentwaters before moving onto 1 Sq at Tangmere. 1 Sqdn converted to Meteor F.8's in September 1950 and the aircraft was transferred to 205 AFS at Middleton St.George on 7th September 1950 when the unit was formed. Though reported not visually badly damaged the aircraft sustained Cat.E2/FA damage in the incident detailed above0.
Pilot - F/L H L Mellor, uninjured. He had only three hours flying time on the Meteor when the crash occured.
John and myself visited the general area of where this aircraft is thought to have crash landed in June 2006. Whilst having no real information to accurately track it down we searched a wide area of moor south of High Quebec Farm for any small trace of the aircraft, nothing was found. The photograph above shows the most likely location where the aircraft was landed, in the area of moorland between the camera and the pylons on the background of the photograph.