Date:	Wednesday 9 March 1955
Time:	day
Type:	Gloster Meteor T Mk 7
Owner/operator:	CFS RAF
Registration:	WH200
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Broadwell Airfield, 2½ miles west of Brize Norton, Oxfordshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.)
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Brize Norton, Carterton, Oxfordshire
Destination airport:	RAF Little Rissington, Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor T.Mk.7 WH200: Notified as awaiting collection 24/1/52, delivered to the RAF 30/1/55. RAF service career was with 205 AFS (Advanced Flying School), 207 AFS, and the CFS (Central Flying School) at RAF Little Rissington, Gloucestershire.

Written off (destroyed) 9/3/55 when spun into ground during asymmetric (single engine) flying practice at Broadwell Airfield, 2½ miles west of Brize Norton, Oxfordshire. The cause of the accident was attributed to the aircraft failing to recover from an an intentional spin, during an instructional flying training sortie dedicated to asymmetric flying training, during which both air brakes were left "open". Both crew killed.

Crew of Meteor T.Mk.7 WH200:
Flying Officer Anthony Robert Wardell RAF (Instructor Pilot, Service Number 4038405, aged 24) - killed in active service 9/3/55, buried in St Peter Churchyard, Little Rissington, Gloucestershire.
Flight Sergeant David John Cooper RAF (Pupil Pilot under instruction, Service number 574409, aged 32) - killed in active service 9/3/55, buried in St Peter Churchyard, Little Rissington, Gloucestershire.

Remains recovered to No.71 MU RAF Bicester for accident investigation and eventual scrapping. Struck off charge as Cat.5(s) in April 1955.

The reported crash site of Broadwell is a village and civil parish about 2 miles (3 km) south-west of Carterton in West Oxfordshire, at approximate co ordinates 51.736°N 1.642°W. Note that the files at the National Archives (PRO Kew) give differing locations to the above: File BT233/2262 gives the crash location as "2½ miles west of Brize Norton Airfield, Oxon., 9 Mar 1955". Whereas File AVIA 5/33/S2743 gives the crash location as "Meteor 7 (WH-200). Location: Little Rissington" [sic] which is where the aircraft was flying to, not where it came down!

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.169 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983 p 48)
3. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.121
4. National Archives (PRO Kew) File BT233/2262: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C424383
5. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AVIA 5/33/S2743: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C6578523
6. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WH
7. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/756534437391874966/
8. https://www.militaryimages.net/media/david-john-cooper.140275/

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
09-Jun-2008 19:59	JINX	Added
20-Jun-2013 04:54	Nepa	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Phase]
13-Jan-2020 21:57	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
14-Jan-2020 19:36	stehlik49	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Nature, Operator]
08-May-2020 19:07	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
08-May-2020 19:10	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
08-May-2020 19:54	Jixon	Updated [Operator, Operator]