Date:	Thursday 27 June 1957
Time:	day
Type:	Gloster Meteor T Mk 7
Owner/operator:	Odiham SF RAF
Registration:	WG961
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Hog's Back, 2 miles SE of Aldershot, Hampshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Odiham, Basingstoke, Hampshire (ODH/EGVO)
Destination airport:	RAF Odiham, Basingstoke, Hampshire (ODH/EGVO)
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor T.Mk.7 WG961: Notified as awaiting collection 4/9/1951, delivered 29/9/1951. Operational service career was with 51 Squadron and the RAF Odiham Station Flight.

Written off (damaged beyond repair) 27/6/1957: The aircraft was carrying on a single engined (asymmetric) GCA approach to RAF Odiham, near Basingstoke, Hampshire. All was normal until approximately seven-and-a-half miles from touchdown. The aircraft was then seen on the CGA radar to move suddenly to port, and simultaneously drop vertically.

Several eyewitnesses saw the aircraft diving towards the ground at Hog's Back, two miles south east of Aldershot, Hampshire. The Meteor stalled and crashed with the starboard wing hitting the ground first. The Board of Inquiry concluded that the cause of the crash was the result of lowering the undercarriage on approach, without first retracting the air brakes, which led to a loss of control. The fact that the Meteor was flying asymmetrically (with one engine shut down) only added to the problem. One of the two crew on board was killed, the other survived, although with serious injuries.

Crew of Meteor WG961:
Flight Lieutenant Brian Thomas, RAF (pilot aged 24) - killed on active service 27/6/1957
Flying Officer S.J. Cooper, RAF (co-pilot) - survived with serious injuries

Wreckage recovered by (and to) 71 MU RAF Bicester, where struck off charge as Cat.5(c) on 1/7/1957. Remains broken up for spares and produce. The crash location of The Hog's Back is a ridge that is part of the North Downs; The Surrey Hills Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty and a Site Of Special Scientific Interest.

The Hog's Back rises to an elevation of 505 feet above the garrison town of Aldershot and runs between the medieval market towns of Farnham and Guildford. It gets its name from its prominent outline that resembles, from a distance and with a good imagination, a hog's back...

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.190 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983 p 47)
3. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.253
4. http://www.ukserials.com/losses-1957.htm
5. http://www.planetrace.co.uk/1950-1959_26.html
6. http://www.hampshireairfields.co.uk/hancrash.html
7. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WG
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hog%27s_Back

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
09-Jun-2008 04:46	JINX	Added
21-Jun-2013 19:16	Nepa	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator]
27-Nov-2019 14:25	Nepa	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Operator]
07-Aug-2020 15:35	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Total occupants, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
07-Aug-2020 15:39	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
07-Aug-2020 20:24	Jixon	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Operator]