Date:	Thursday 12 April 1951
Time:	day
Type:	Gloster Meteor F Mk 8
Owner/operator:	66 Sqn RAF
Registration:	VZ518
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Black Hill, Sliddens Moss, near Woodhead, Derbyshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Linton-on-Ouse, North Yorkshire
Destination airport:	RAF Linton-on-Ouse, North Yorkshire
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
At 9:15am on Thursday 12th April 1951 a flight of four Meteor jet aircraft took off from RAF Linton-on-Ouse near York for a training flight. Flying the lead pair were Flight Lieutenant David Merryweather Leach (WA791) and Flying Officer Tony Hauxwell (VZ518). The flight was to climb to around 30,000ft where the two pairs would carry out attacks on each other. The weather forecast for the day was for complete cloud cover from 1,500ft to 20,000ft, on reaching 30,000ft the four aircraft were still in thick cloud and radioed Linton on Ouse to inform them that the flight would be returning home.

All four aircraft turned back towards Linton-on-Ouse after having descended back through 20,000ft Flt Lt Leach reported he could what he thought was Leeds through a break in the cloud and he and F/O Hauxwell were going to proceed down.

The second pair could not see through the cloud and not being entirely sure of their position radioed their intention to remain at 20,000ft. After some 5 minutes the lead pilot of the second pair, Flying Officer Leslie Hayward, attempted to contact Flt Lt Leach with no success following this RAF Northern Radar at Lindholme near Doncaster attempted to contact the pair again with no success. Following this a search was mounted with wreckage being spotted latter in the day with a ground team reaching the seen the following afternoon. The two aircraft had continued to descend through cloud and without ever breaking out of the bottom of the overcast had flown into the top of the moor in formation. The marks left by the two aircraft are still clearly visible. There was not - as some have suggested - a mid-air collision.

Crew:
Flying Officer Anthony Henry HAUXWELL (pilot, aged 25) RAF

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.112 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1985)
3. Last Take Off; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p.128
4. 66 Squadron ORB (Operations Record Book)(Air Ministry Form AM/F.540) for the period 1/1/1951 to 31/12/1955: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 27/2627/1 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8424987
5. https://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/crash_sites/peak-district/gloster-meteor-wa791-vz518-sliddens-moss/
6. https://aircrashsites.co.uk/air-crash-sites-5/tail-section-of-a-crashed-gloster-meteor-jet-in-the-peak-district/
7. https://forum.wscc.co.uk/forum/topic/139113-have-you-ever-wondered/
8. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VZ
9. http://www.the-great-outdoors.uk/peak-district-aircraft-wrecks/black-hill-aircraft-wrecks.html
10. http://www.wtdwhd.co.uk/peak%20district/Holm%20Moss.html
11. http://macr.moonfruit.com/meteors/4518697148
12. https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2710377
13. https://raf238squadron.wordpress.com/2014/08/21/more/
14. http://www.nwex.co.uk/showthread.php?p=103975

Tail Fin of Gloster Meteor: Two Gloster Meteors (WA791 + VZ518) crashed on Sliddens Moss 12th April 1951 in thick cloud whilst on a training exercise from RAF Linton-on-Ouse (York). Both pilots died. Photographed 4 March 2006

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
23-Dec-2015 18:40	gerard57	Added
08-Oct-2020 14:39	soucek56	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator]
18-Jan-2021 01:29	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Embed code, Narrative]