Date:	Tuesday 15 February 1955
Time:	afternoon
Type:	Gloster Meteor T Mk 7
Owner/operator:	12 FTS RAF
Registration:	WH194
MSN:	Not Known
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Lympsham, 6 miles west of Axbridge, Somerset -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.)
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Weston Zoyland, Bridgwater, Somerset.
Destination airport:	RAF Weston Zoyland, Somerset.
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor T.Mk.7 WH194: Notified as awaiting collection 14/1/52, delivered to the RAF 16/1/52. RAF career was with 207 AFS (Advanced Flying School), and 12 FTS, RAF Weston Zoyland, Bridgwater, Somerset.

Written off (destroyed) 15/2/55: Abandoned in inverted spin at about 4,000 feet during aerobatic practice. Aircraft dived into the ground at Lympsham, Somerset. Both crew bailed out successfully, and parachuted down to earth.

Crew of Meteor WH194:
Flight Lieutenant Donald Arthur Cooper RAF (Instructor Pilot, Service Number 607202, aged 24)
Lieutenant S. E. Balhawane, Lebanese Air Force (Pupil Pilot Under Instruction, aged 22)

The reported crash location of Lympsham is a village and civil parish six miles west of Axbridge and six miles south-east of Weston-super-Mare, close to the River Axe in Somerset, England, at approximate co ordinates 51.286°N 2.955°W

The instructor pilot later rose through the ranks to become Wing Commander Donald Arthur Cooper RAF, CBE, AFC. He died suddenly but peacefully on December 31st 2019 aged 89 (see link #9 for a biography)

1. Eyewitness report Provided by the instructor pilot-Wing Commander D A Cooper RAF on 12-March-2013
2. Wings Over Somerset: Aircraft Crashes since the End of World War II By Peter Forrester
3. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.168 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
4. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1985 p.48)
5. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.117
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lympsham
7. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WH
8. http://announcements.telegraph.co.uk/deaths/238699/cooper
9. http://www.oldcranwellians.info/obits/rip-2019.html

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
09-Jun-2008 19:53	JINX	Added
12-Mar-2013 12:02	D A Cooper	Updated [Time, Cn, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
20-Jun-2013 04:48	Nepa	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Departure airport, Destination airport]
06-May-2020 22:45	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
06-May-2020 22:46	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
06-May-2020 22:47	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
06-May-2020 22:54	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
06-May-2020 22:57	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
07-May-2020 08:23	MIG29	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Destination airport, Operator]