Date:	Friday 29 February 1952
Time:	day
Type:	Gloster Meteor F Mk 8
Owner/operator:	64 Sqn RAF
Registration:	WE937
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Hempstead, Uttlesford, 5 miles E of Saffron Walden, Essex, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Duxford, Cambridgeshire
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor F.Mk.8 WE937: Taken on charge 2.5.51 and delivered to 64 Sqn at RAF Duxford, Cambridgeshire, 3.5.51. Written off (destroyed) when dived into ground out of cloud, at Hempstead, Uttlesford, five miles East of Saffron Walden, Essex,29.2.52. The aircraft was one of a formation which had entered cloud at 1,400 feet, climbing rapidly. When the formation emerged from cloud at 6,000 feet, the pilot of Meteor WE937 found that he had lost visual contact with the remaining aircraft of the formation.

Witnesses on the ground then saw Meteor WE937 dive into the ground in a vertical attiude from the cloud base and impact near Hempstead, 5 miles East of Saffron Walden, Essex. Although not proved by the RAF Board of Inquiry, it seems probable that the pilot lost control while flying on instruments (IFR), having lost the rest of the formation in cloud. The pilot was killed

Crew of Meteor WE937
Flying Officer (3504745) James Henry CATCHPOLE (pilot) RAF - killed 29.2.52

The reported crash location of Hempstead is a village and civil parish in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England. The village is 7 miles (11 km) east from Saffron Walden and 6 miles (10 km) west from Haverhill. Hempstead is situated on the B1054 Saffron Walden to Steeple Bumpstead road.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.124 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983)
3. Last Take Off; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p.225
4. RAF Duxford: A History in Photographs from 1917 to the Present Day By Richard C. Smith
5. 64 Squadron ORB (Operations Records Book)(Air Ministry Form AM/F.540) For the period January 1 1951 to December 31 1955: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 27/2626/2 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8424985
6. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WE
7. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/39111/supplement/62/data.pdf
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hempstead,_Essex .

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
05-Jun-2008 16:55	JINX	Added
12-May-2015 07:25	Coumes	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator]
28-May-2017 21:53	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
27-Feb-2021 21:19	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Location, Source, Narrative]
28-Feb-2021 01:54	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
19-May-2021 09:25	Anon.	Updated [Location, Narrative, Operator]