On the 20th of June 1951 this aircraft took from Linton-on-Ouse, Yorkshire at just before 11.30hrs for an aerobatic exercise and then to practice Ground Controlled Approaches (CGA) to Linton airfield. Half an hour after take-off this aircraft was flying in the Scarborough area, towards the town from the Harwood Dale direction, when the aircrafts undercarriage unlocks failed and the undercarriage extended, the resulting stress load was too much and the aircraft broke up in mid-flight. The aircraft crashed in fields north west of Scalby, near Beacon Farm killing the pilot instantly, his watch stopping at 11.50hrs. Mr Welburn of Silpho Brow Farm was working in nearby fields when he saw the aircraft brake up overhead and come down in fields near him. The owner of Beacon Farm had been working in the fields where the aircraft had crashed but he gone back to the farm for an early lunch, had he been in the fields the aircraft would almost certainly have struck him. Mr Welburn's then fiancee was heading back to the farm later in the day and was initially stopped from going her normal way home because of the crash and the police closing the lane. She was eventually allowed through to go home and passed the main crash site near the track over to the farm from Coomboots. Wreckage was spread over a number of fields either side of this track however a wing section and the main aircraft fuselage came to earth fairly close to one another on the slopes below Beacon Brow. The tail of the aircraft is thought to have landed some distance away.
Following investigation of the wreckage it was thought that the Meteor broke up in flight due to a ""positive "g" being applied"".
The aircraft was built to contract 6/ACFT/2983 by the Gloster Aircraft Co. Ltd at Hucclecote and delivered to the RAF on 19th February 1951. After acceptance it was issued to 66 Sqdn at Linton on Ouse. It sustained Cat. E2/FA damage in the incident detailed above.
Pilot - Sgt John Anstee Martin RAF (3504636), aged 21, of West Norwood, (Westminster), London. Buried Newton on Ouse Churchyard, Yorkshire (grave RAF8). He was born on 12 October 1929.
I have not yet visited the site of the crash but thanks to Mr and Mrs Welburn's directions I should soon be able to photograph the general area of where it occured.
My thanks to Mr and Mrs F Welburn, formerly of Silpho Brow Farm, for a worthwhile afternoon recollecting their memories of this incident to me in April 2006, without which much of the above would not be as complete.